23 JANUARY 1841, Page 9

POSTSCRIPT.

SATURDAY NIGHT.

The meetings at Leeds, of Further Reformers and Chartists, which have been looked forward to with much interest in the North of Eng- bind, took place on Thursday. The object of the Further Reformers was to make a striking demonstration before the meeting of Parliament, end to unite all classes of Reformers in demanding Household Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, and remodelled Electoral Districts. With the view of giving greater weight to the demonstration, numbers of Members of Parliament, and others who were known supporters of Liberal politics, were invited to attend. Among those invited was Mr. O'Connell ; and this invitation caused a division of feeling, and induced the Chartis:s to get up an opposition meeting, for the purpose of giving Mr. O'Con- nell a "welcome." Their hostile feeling to him has been chiefly fanned, if not inspired, by the attacks in Feargus O'Connor's paper. Placards were posted about the town, abusing the Agitator in no measured terms : +the epithets "personification of deceit," "foul-mouthed traducer," " hideous lump of hypocrisy," and many more like to them, were applied to him, as the man whom the middle classes had engaged to wheedle the "producers of wealth" again into their clutches.

The Chartist meeting took place on Holbeck Heath, a short distance from Leeds, soon after one o'clock. According to the Chronicle of this morning, the number present did not exceed three thousand. A Mr. Hobson was called to the chair ; and Mr. Collins of Birmingham was among the speakers. -Their meeting did not last lung; as it was the intention of the Chartists to join the meeting of the middle-class Re- formers, called for a later hour. The Chartists resolved not to join in, or countenance, any agitation for any other measure than the People's Charter ; that they could not look upon Messrs. Marshall, Stausfeld, and other capitalists who had "dared to introduce Mr. O'Connell" among them, without feelings of disgust and contempt ; that the work- ing-classes are heartily in favour of Irish Repeal, but that they would not join in any plan for its accomplishment recommended by Mr. O'Connell ; and, as a climax, they resolved, that "the Government of Lord Melbourne is the most cruel, incompetent, reckless, immoral, bloodthirsty, and profligate, that has ever held office within the memory of man." The meeting then separated, after moving an address to the Queen, founded upon the resolutions.

The Further Reform meeting was held in Mr. Marshall's mill at Hol- beck, one of the largest in England, standing on two acres of ground, and described by the Times as capable, in one apartment alone, of hold- ing 50,000 persons. Seats were provided for 8,000 persons who were to be admitted at the charges of 2s. 6d., Is. 6d., and 6d., to defray the expenses of fitting-up, &c. To the sixpenny places the Chartists, to the number of 2,000, succeeded in purchasing tickets. "The conveners of the meeting, (we now quote the Times report,) on discovering this, and finding that the object was to oppose the meeting and Mr. Daniel O'Connell, were compelled to come to terms with the Chartists ; and, on condition that there should be a cessation of hostilities, they were promised that the resolution to be proposed should be a general one, and that the Chartists and themselves should alternately address the meeting." Most of the places were occupied by four o'clock ; soon after -which hour Mr. Marshall took the chair. Among those present were— Mr. Hume, M.P., Mr. John Williams, M.P., Sir George Strickland,

Mr. Sharman Crawford, Mr Roebuck, Mr. Gully, Mr. Hardy of Eirksgate, Mr. Middleton of Middleton Hall. Mr. Cowper Marshall, Mr. George Goodman, Mr. J. D. Ross of Rosstrevor, Mr. T. P. G. Thomson, Mr. Lees of Delph Lodge, Mr. Hamer Stansfeld, Dr. Epps of London, Lieutenant C. P. Ladd, R.N. of Falmouth, Mr. P. B. San- derson junior, Newcastle, Mr. Perkins, of Manchester, Councillors Cliff, Hall, Shackleton, Whitehead, Richardson ; Messrs. Moir (Glas- gow), Collins, O'Neil, Deegan, Barstow, and Lowry, Chartist Delegates, They were received by their respective friends on both sides with loud applause. Mr. O'Connell did not make his appearance. The Chairman opened the business of the meeting ; and read letters from Lord Fitzwilliam, Lord Lovelace, Sir W. Molesworth, Mr. Grote, Mr. Aglionby, Mr. Wynn Ellis, Mr. Easthope, General Sharp, Mr. Ward, M.P., Mr. Baines, 'Colonel Napier, and several others, all ex- cusing themselves from attending. Colonel Napier's letter was pithy if not pleasant-

" Freshford, 14th January.

" Sir—I have just received your circular inviting me to attend a grand festival of Reformers, at Leeds, upon the 21st instant. It would give me great pleasure to assist in any measure or demonstration really calculated to forward the cause of Reform; but I can have no reliance on the sincerity or efficacy of any meeting of Reformers where Mr. Daniel O'Connell is expected to bear a prominent part. I must decline the invitation. "1 remain, Sir, yours, Ac. "W. NAPIER. "J. G. Marshall, Chairman of the Leeds Parliamentary Reform Association.'

Mr. Hume came forward to move the first resolution) but it was a long time before he could obtain a hearing. The people, it was sup- posed, mistook him for Mr. O'Connell ; but, after his name had been loudly announced, still he could not be heard, until Mr. Collins came forward to entreat them to listen. Mr. Hume then proceeded. He said he came there for no other purpose than to promote that union among Reformers without which they must continue to be trampled under foot by the aristocracy, who now prey upon the people. They had one com- mon object in view—good government ; and he urged them to unite their exertions to obtain it. He moved the following resolution-

" That the great experiment made by means of the Reform Bill to improve the condition of the country has failed to attain the end desired by thepeople ; and a further reform having therefore become necessary, it is the opinion of this meeting that the united efforts of all Reformers ought to be directed to obtain such a further enlargement of the franchise as should make the interests of the representatives identical with those of the whole country, and by this means secure a just government for all classes of the people."

Mr. Moir, a deputy from the Chartists at Glasgow, seconded the re- solution ; and advocated the Charter as the only effectual means of benefiting the working classes. His speech did not produce much im- pression.

Sir George Strickland was the next orator. He said he belonged to that party in the state who would give the people an extension of pri- vilege in proportion to the expansion of their intelligence. This senti- ment was received with hisses by the Chartists.

Mr. Collins spoke after Sir George ; and observed, that if intelligence were to be the qualification for electoral privileges, there would still arise the question, who was to judge of intelligence ? To give House- hold Suffrage, he contended, was not to carry out that principle, as the possession of a house was no proof of the possession of intellect. Mr. Collins was loudly cheered by the Chartists.

Mr. Roebuck came next. He appealed to the reason and good feel- ings of his auditors ; and endeavoured, in the same spirit as in his recent lectures, to conciliate all sections of the working classes, by showing that they all belonged to the working class, though their work was of different kinds.

Mr. O'Neil, from Birmingham, presented an address from "the men of Birmingham" to the Leeds Parliamentary Reform Association, and then made a speech.

The other speakers were Mr. Sharman Crawford, Mr. Lowry, Mr. Williams, M.P., Colonel P. Thompson, and Mr. Deegan, the Chartist Delegate for Sunderland. The resolution proposed by Mr. Hume was then put to the vote, and carried unanimously. A vote of thanks to Mr. Marshall was also carried. The meeting then dispersed.

The Chartists, finding that Mr. O'Connell did not appear, became apparently more reconciled to the proceedings of the meeting, and desisted from the system of interruption which they had organized to prevent the speakers from being heard.