reasonable men; and then we have peace; and then we may begin marching back, till we get into our old paths of plenty for those who labour, of respect and reverence for the laws, and of ungrudged obedience and honour to those who administer those laws. himself has " called upon the nation to support him," and that Burdett's objection made at the Middlesex Meeting was a “sham objection." It is true also, that the nation ought to answer the call; but it is further true, that the nation is answering the call, and that, too, in the most proper and most resolute man- And, surely, if ever there were a ner; but the call is answered upon the moment at which a restoration to these clearly understood ground that the suf- inestimable blessings were doubly defrage is to be greatly extended; that sirable, this is that moment. It is imthe monstrous iniquity of rotten bo-possible to look at the state of this roughs is to be completely broken up; kingdom, shaken to its very centre, in and that the voting is to be by ballot. spite of all its immense resources; it I appeal to every man of candour whe- is impossible to look at the state of ther this be not the clearly understood France and of the far greater part of condition upon which even the most Europe; it is impossible to open one's staid part of the people are answering the eyes without imbibing the conviction, call of Lord GREY. I do not, there- that some very great changes must take fore, like paragraph 10 of this set of place in the mode of managing the reobservations; for, though I know that sources and conducting the affairs of narrow and minute reform must be this most important country of all; and, accepted," if it be carried through O God! how often have I said, that Parliament; and though I know that it these changes never can be made, in a would naturally" lead to more," yet I peaceable manner, without councillors could not follow the advice of this who have the people at their back! writer, and welcome it as the harbinger Have the people at their back this of that more. It is a right that is de- ministry cannot, without a reform of manded; or it is a gift that is prayed the Parliament which would be satisfor. In either case, to dole out some-factory to that people. In short, nobody thing far short of the expectations of can do the thing but the people them the party demanding or praying, is selves. Fully and fairly represented equally unwise. If it be a right, then they would do it: they would carry the to withhold is a wrong; if it be a gift, Minister though every measure necessary then to give grudgingly, to give reluctantly, is really not to give at all. This is so manifest, it is a truth which all experience so firmly ratifies, that I deem it impossible that it should not be attended to by men who have their own all as well as the all of their master and their country at stake. Were there no other objection to the "narrow and minute" reform here hinted at, this one objection would be quite enough; that it would still keep the subject open; that it would still make it the complaint in every man's mouth; that it would still make the aristocracy and their encroachments the burden of every complaining pen and tongue; that it would still, in short, expose them to all the accusations to which they are now exposed. Oh! no: the true way is to do that that will satisfy all just and to the safety and honour of the country: but, without that, they will leave him to shift for himself. LORD GREY should have impressed fully upon his mind, that he can preserve his power by no means other than that of the support of the people. It is right indeed that it always ought to have been thus; but many centuries have passed since it was thus before. Out of the excess of evil comes good; and at last, the monstrous burdens that the people have had to bear have actually given them the mastership. Even their defeats and the punishments inflicted upon them have added to their power; for they have only pro duced a sinothering of the struggle for a moment; and this, which is manifest to every one, the Minister himself cannot but perceive. Every-body felt that the Duke of Wellington could not have remained in power after his declaration | sufferers had led. They mourned how horror; and when the bloody Times newspaper communicated the intelligence of a hanging of CoOPER and of Cook, never shall I forget the exclamations of the people.. In ordinary times, here would have been enough to shake a ministry to pieces; but the ministers have had the good sense to listen to the cries of the people as far as life is immediately at stake. Let us hope that the same feeling will further prompt them to spare the bleeding hearts of parents, wives, chil dren, and brethren, by following the advice which I most respectfully tendered them in my last Register. at the opening of the Parliament. The ever in silence. The considerate deeply people, generally speaking, had no ob regretted, while the selfish timid acjection to him before that: till a very quiesced in the necessity; but when the short time before the Parliament opened commissioners came to Hampshire, he certainly contemplated the making of where no man was even tried for arson, a Parliamentary Reform; or, at least, he and where a whole half dozen were left was balancing on the point. Two days to be hanged under acts of parliament before the Parliament opened, or about neither of which was more than about two days, the bloody old Times news-twenty years old, every mouth was paper announced that he meant to make opened with expressions of dismay and no reform. The speech was therefore waited for with angry anticipation; and when the speech came out accompanied with his declaration, the expressions of the people were such as I wish Lord Grey could have heard. The ninth of November only brought into the glare of open day, and proclaimed to all Europe, that which the people of England well knew before. After that he could not remain in power. No doubt he had the votes and might have kept them; but the "extraneous" storm, the peltings and hootings and revilings, were such that it was impossible for him to preserve his place without a destruction of respect for all rank and dignity; indeed, without exposing the King himself, so popular but a few weeks before, to something very nearly approaching to popular insult. Therefore, even those measure which they hope will prevent who approved of his conduct were such scenes from ever again lacerating compelled, even for their own sakes, to their hearts. That the sun gives light wish for his removal, which necessarily is not a truth more indubitable than included the removal of all that had co- that the want of a reform of the parlia operated with him. Lord Grey's acces- ment, and that that alone, has been the sion to power gave great and general cause of all these calamities: the one satisfaction, because the people under- of these truths is just as clear as the stood it to say this: The Duke is driven other in the mind of every man in the out for having declared against reform, kingdom. Therefore every additional and Lord Grey therefore comes in to make calamity, every additional disgracé, adds a reform. No minister could ever stand to the conviction of the necessity for a fairer than Lord Grey did until the an- parliamentary reform: any man that nouncement of an addition to the stand will make it may remain minister, ing army was made, and until the special and no inan that will not make it can commissions began their works. These remain minister for any length of time. works, and especially those at Win-Lord Grey need not call upon the nation chester, all particulars of which I refrain from detailing at present, produced a most disadvantageous effect with regard to the new ministry. As long as the hanging was confined to the crime of arson, the people pitied and mourned, considering the cruel lives which the The feelings stirred up by these dreadful scenes, having now somewhat subsided, they are looking with more earnestness than for that great to support him; they are quite ready enough to support him; indeed he sees that they are all quite ready. It de pends on himself, and on himself alone, whether he will continue to be minister, and save the country from convulsion, or whether he will not. "Extraneous" support, indeed! The difficulty would be for him to find any half-dozen people, men or women, not ready to give him that support; unless it were those who live upon tithes and taxes. But, if he were to refuse to propose a reform of the parliament; or if he were to adopt : even yet the aristocracy may take them by the hand, and that all this terrible turmoil may be made to end in peace. But, if they be still so blind and so obstinate as to refuse to do this, the Minister may do it at any rate; and it is his duty to do it; because the safety of the people depends upon his so doing. Let him try them however let him say, If you turn me out, you turn me out hand in hand with the people. His power would be as durable as his life or his health, if he chose it to be so, and his name would live in the grateful recollection of the children of the children who have yet to be born. No man ever stood in such an important situation as Lord Grey stands at this very moment, A week or two will probably decide whether he be to be huddled away into everlasting obscurity along with the Addingtons, the Percevals, the Jenkinsons, and the Wellingtons, or whether he be to be that very 66 narrow and minute measure' which this writer hints at, he would be precisely in the situation that the Duke was in on the ninth of November; for the people are far more alive to the subject now than they were then. The augmentation of the army and the special commissions have certainly given a shake to their confidence; and they are looking forward to the 3rd of February with earnestness and anxiety perfectly indescribable. To me it is the most wonderful thing in the world, that the aristocracy, above all men living, should not see that their own security, and their only security now rests upon their taking the people by the hand. Never was there a body of persons of equal reverenced in life and remembered after number, who had so much at stake as death as the restorer of the freedom, the nobility of this kingdom now have; the happiness, and the honour of Engnobody grudges them their titles, at land. The nation will not sink: let least nobody but empty-skulled fools, him remember that. Confusion and who are not as a thimble-full of water anarchy would lacerate it; would make compared with the Thames, when viewed it tear itself about for a while; but out in conjunction with the nation. No of that confusion it would rise, having body grudges them their immense es- broken all its shackles, and cast all its tates; nobody grudges them the respect debts to the winds, greater, higher in and deference due to their rank: it is spirit, more prosperous, and more in the very nature of the people, and of powerful than ever. Here are all the all people of all countries, to pay respect elements of greatness. God has done to antiquity of family, whether accom- every-thing for us, and our forefathers panied with intrinsic merit or not; and have handed down God's gifts unimyet, while they have this natural re- paired: our own industry and energy spect, this cheerful obedience, this un- are too great to suffer us to become a grudged reverence, tendered them; while little nation; but the desirable thing is, they have here more real power and do- and the thing for which I have pleaded, mination voluntarily offered them than ever since I had the power of pleading ought to be enough to satisfy the most for any-thing, is, that the restoration haughty and overbearing of mortals, they should be accomplished in a peaceable cast all this aside as nothing worth, and manner; that we should regain all that hold, with the grasp of grim death, that our forefathers bequeathed us, and that, ill-gotten power which they cannot keep too, without the spilling of one drop of without a new code of laws, the most English blood. That this may be done, harsh and sanguinary that the world if Lord Grey will say the word, I am ever beheld. In speaking as I have certain; and that he will say that word, done above of the feelings and disposi- is my most anxious wish. Before I tion of the people of England, I know shall be able to put pen to paper again, that I speak the truth: I know that the question will probably have been be done, whatever my own private opinions may be upon the question of universal suffrage, 1 shall not quarrel with the measure, though it goes not the length I wish it to go. Good policy demands unity of sentiment, if we wish to obtain any part of what we agree as neces we should avow our opinious, and though some sary; at the same time honesty demands that men will not go the length I go, yet I can act with those whose views upon the question are to state to you my feeling on the subject, and not so extended as my own. I will endeavour I pledge myself never to let the question rest P. S. It was my intention to insert here the speech of Sir THOMAS BEEYOR's and those of the other speakers at the Norwich Meeting; but I have not room. Some of these speeches would make the ears of the boroughmongers tremble. I cannot refrain, however, from inserting that of Sir THOMAS till the whole is obtained. It is not necessary BEEVOR. that I should enter at great length into the general question, but in stating my views, I SIR THOMAS BEEVOR then came forward, will lay before you some arguments which, to and said—lu rising to propose to you a series my mind, have appeared conclusive. First, of resolutious, I cannot help recurring to the I am an advocate for universal suffrage, withprogress which Reform has made in men's out any qualification, mental reservation, or minds within a short period. Not many years restriction whatsover. If an extension of sufago those who advocated Reform were a few frages be granted, there is no point at which despised calumniated individuals, and only 12 it can stop. The argument which applies to years has passed since the thousands who some applies with equal force to all. Some met to petition for Reform at Manchester were say, Let property be the qualification; (cries attacked by the yeomanry, cut down and of“ no;") but what man is there who is postrampled upon, and for this act of tyranny and sessed of no property? Numbers of you oppression the thanks of the country were, possess no property but the labour of your voted to the magistracy, upon the motion of right hands; but you may be called on to your, noble fellow citizen, Lord Sidmouth. serve in the militia; your life and service (Laughter and hooting.) Now how different may be devoted to your country'; on an inis the case the schoolmaster is abroad, men vasjon you may be called on to sacrifice all better know their rights, and even our wise your property, while the wealthy man can for rulers feel that men have rights as well as a few pounds purchase a substitute. Others duties; but the present time is more peculiarly say that the qualification should be to those adapted for the discussion of the question, be- who pay direct taxation; but why should it be cause the noble Lord at the head of the Go- in favour of direct taxation? The amount of vernment, and those united with him in the the former is about one-eighth, of the latter Administration, are not only favourable to seven-eighths. Why should the one-eighth Reform, but stand pledged, and indeed have be represented, and the seven eighths uot? come into power, for the express purpose of Others say, Intelligence should be the qualicarrying it into effect. This however is no fication. It would be a somewhat difficult reason why we should relax our efforts; let us matter to decide what amount of intelligence remember that in the present Administration | should be necessary; certainly, if no more there are some of the friends of Mr. Canning, intelligence was required to become an elector the implacable enemy of Reform. Another than is necessary to become an hereditary party who came into office about three years legislator, the suffrages would not be very ago, and gave the question the go-by on the limited. With respect to the duration of pretext that the people were indifferent to it. Parliaments, I consider it a matter of very Let it be recollected by every man that when secondary interest; it would be better that the Duke of Wellington brought in his great they should be annual, or rather sessional, measure of Emancipation, it was suffered to than triennial; it would be much more reapass, clogged with a clause by which 300,000 sonable that when the Parliament has met Irishmen were disfranchised. With respect together to transact the business of the to the present distracted state of the country, country, that they should go through that it was to have been hoped from the present business and dissolve as a matter of course, Ministry that something might have been till a similar body should be required for the done. Something has been done-an increase administration of affairs. The arguments of the army has been ordered, and special which are urged in favour of triennial parCommissioners have been sent round the liaments apply equally to parliaments of seven country to expound the law to deluded men, or of seventy times seven years. I am not at that is, to hang, transport, and imprison the all disposed on the present occasion to quibble suffering population by wholesale. It is neces-or to split upon details: I make only one sary to show Ministers that we shall not be exception in favour of the ballot. (Loud content with the shadow of Reform. It is not cheers.) One of the arguments used by disfranchisement but extension we want; it is writers was that the mass of the people were an alteration of the system which will go largely supposed to use their suffrages independently : to increase the elective franchise. If that-if they cannot show any better arguments against the adoption than this, their assertions | a right to; but that right is founded on must fall to the ground. Another objection his performing the duty of labouring to the ballot is, that it would make the people or on his being willing to perform it. too independent that the servant would vote against the master, and tenant against the It is of great importance that you unlandlord, and so on. This was only a proof derstand this matter clearly; and I will that independence among the body of the now endeavour to enable you to do it. people did not exist. I have now laid before you my scheme of Reform: never will I cease to advocate it till it is gained. The resolutions I have to read, though they do not meet my views exactly in words, yet they do in principle. But on the first and last points I feel it right to say they go to the full extent of my opinions both in words and principle. (Loud cheers.) Sir Thomas then read the resolutions. TO THE LABOURERS OF ENGLAND, There was a time when, in every country in the world, there were no laws, and no such thing as property. The people used the earth and all its produce as they pleased; that is to say, each man took whatever he wanted, if his strength or cunning would allow him to do it. No one acknowledged the superiority of any other: might gave right strength and wisdom were superior to weakness and folly: and there was no other superiority or inferiority acknowledged amongst men. This was called living under the law of nature. When God put it into the hearts of men DEAR FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN, to change this state of things, and to You have always been dear to me, make rules and laws for the observance of whose greatest pride it is that I was the whole, they agreed that the whole of born and bred amongst you; who has, the community or body of people in his travels about the world, never should enforce these laws, against any seen any people so industrious, so sin- one or more that broke them. cere, so virtuous, parents so tender, chil- great law of all was this; that, in dren so affectionate, servants so wil-future, every man should keep to himlingly obedient, friends so steady and self; should call his own should be so true Your character and your con-able to apply to his own use solely; that duct have always made you dear to me; which he had got by his labour. For no time, no distance, has weakened my instance, John Stiles, when living under regard for, or my anxiety for, your wel- the law of nature, might take a piece of fare; from across the seas I addressed land, and cultivate it, and have a crop you; through the walls of a prison you of wheat growing on it; but, when fit heard my voice; my heart has always for the sickle Tom Nokes, a great deal been gladdened by your happiness, and stronger man than Stiles, might come saddened by your calamities; but, if and cut the wheat and carry it away and you have always been dear to me, you are let Stiles have none of it. It is not doubly dear to me now, when your affic-likely that men would be so villanously tions are so great and so various, and when I am cheered with the hope of seeing you once more the happy people that our grandfathers and grandmothers were. In this important crisis, pray hear me patiently, while I speak to you of your duties as well as of your rights: for, in demanding the latter, you ought not to forget the former; duties and rights go together; and he who refuses to perform the first, tacitly abandons his right to the last. Good food, raiment, and all the necessaries of life, the labourer has The unjust as this, or that the rest of the people would be so base as to stand by and to see Stiles thus bereft of his wheat, and have nothing left to exist upon, perhaps, but a few wheel-barrows full of damned potatoes; this is not likely but it might happen, and sometimes did happen, perhaps, and therefore all the people agreed to enter into a society, to make rules that should give Stiles an exclusive right to his crop, and that should punish such a fellow as Nokes as a robber, if he came to take the crop away. |