16rottittria1.

MR. BRIGHT AT BDIMINGIIAM.

The townspeople of Birmingham, summoned by the Mayor, met Mr. Bright in the Town-hall, at seven o'clock on Wednesday evening; every Part of the building being crowded. Among those present were several of Mr. Bright's friends from Manchester. At the commencement of his speech, Mr. Bright described himself as oppressed by the incapacity to ful- fil the duty which devolved upon him that night. Three years had Passed since he had been permitted to address any public meeting, and he had gone through a new and great experience. "From apparent health I have been brought down to a condition of weakness exceeding the weakness of a little child, in which I could neither read nor write, nor converse for more than a few minutes without distress and without Peril; end from that condition, by degrees so fine as to be imperceptible even to myself, I have been restored to the comparative health in which you now behold me." He expressed with reverent and thankful heart hiS acknowledgments for the signal favour extended to him by the Great Supreme ; his gratitude to all classes of his countrymen for their num- berless kindnesses; and he most especially alluded to a dweller on one of Our Lancashire moors, "who sent me a most kind message to say that he believed where he lived was the healthiest spot in England, and that If I would come and take up my abode with him for a time, though his raeans were limited and his dwelling humble, he would contrive to let lee have a room to myself."

Mr. Bright alluded, at some length, to the events connected with the lees of his Manchester seat, declaring that, notwithstanding the reports to the contrary, his opinion on the Russian war had not in the slightest

Pee changed. He explained, however, that instead of opposing the luarian war on general grounds of peace or of religion, he had debated ;e8Pecifically on the ground that to create the necessity of war it must shown that the objects to be attained are prime; and in some degree Worth the cost and sacrifices made to attain them. He found no corn- eensation which England had had for the hundred millions expended, or Europe for the three hundred millions squandered by all parties engaged

that frightful contest.

p F came howeeer to the greakquestiew which is before the eeunt7Y- i'ruauteletexy Reform. Within' the last few years we have had fourrGie;

vernments pledged to Parliamentary Reform,—When Lord John Russel was Minister ; when Lord Aberdeen was in power and Lord John intro- duced a Bill,—and the less said of those two Bills the better ; when Lord Palmerston was in power ; and now while Lord Derby is in office. They all pretended to be fond of the question of Reform, but did not tell much about it. As they said of the deplorable American cable the other day, " the currents were visible, but the signal wholly indistinct." Parlia- ment, as at present constituted, does not represent the country ; and he advanced a few proofs of that assertion.-

" In the year 1846, when the great question of the repeal of the corn laws was under discussion, it required an earthquake to allow the people to buy their bread in the earth's markets ; it required a famine in Ireland—which from 184,5 to 1851 lessened the population of that country by 3,000,000—it required the conversion of a great Minister, the break up of a great party, the • endangering of the constitution,' and all those mysterious evil; which official statesmen discovered when the poor artisan of Birmingham or Man- chester, or the poor half-starred labourer asked this only—that where bread could be had best and cheapest in return for his labour he might be per- mitted to buy it. But coming down to 18.52, when Lord Derby was in office, he went to a dissolution, and the great question proposed to the constituen- cies was protection. Parliament re-assembled, and protection and Lord Derby were defeated by a majority of 19 ; but when you had only a majority

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of 19 n the House of Commons against the reestablishment of protection, nineteen-twentieths of the people of England were determined that they never would have anything of the sort again. (C/seere.) Take again the questions which affect the Establisleed Church. Probably many penems in this meeting are not aware that according to the return of the Registrar- General only one-third of the people of this country have any connexion with the Established Church. In Scotland one-third only of the population are connected with the establishment ; in Ireland five out of six, in Wales eight out of ten, have no connexion at all with it. And yet the Established Church is paramount in both Houses." The legacy duty alrorded another example, Mr. Bright particularly citing the ease of two perorate. One was a friend who obtained an estate yielding 700/. a year, worth at 33 years' purchase, 21,000/., with timber worth 11,000/.—in all 32,000/., who was charged 7001.; whereas in the other case, on property not "real" taken under a legacy, the duty would have been

'The experience of everybody proves how unequal the Income-tax is, and everybody knows how every Government has swept away all proposals to make it more equal and just. The statistics of representation show an inequality absolutely fatal to all fair representation. " There are in Yorkshire ten small boroughs which return to Parlia- ment sixteen Members—there are other eight boroughs in Yorkshire whose Members altogether are fourteen. Now, the ten boroughs returning the sixteen Members have not more than 80,000 of a population, while the eight boroughs with the fourteen Members have a population of 620,000." "There are in the House of Commons at present 330 Members (more than half) whose whole number of constituents do not amount to more than 180,000, and there are at the same time in Parliament twenty-four Members whose constituents are upwards of 200,000 in number, and, while the con- stituents of the 330 Members are assessed to the property-tax at 15,000,0001., the constituents of the twenty-four Members are assessed to the same tax at more than 24,000,0001."

" The present. Clia,neellor of the Exchequer, you know' represents the county of Bucks. That county has a population of 164,000, which is not much more than half the population of Birmingham, and yet Bucks with its boroughs has not less than eleven Members in the House of C0111111101111, 161 persons in Bucks return eleven Members, while Birmingham, of not less than 250,000, and probably much more, only returns two Members. I will give you another illustration, which refers to your own town. In the counties of Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Wiltshire there arc twenty-two boroughs, which return thirty-four Members to Parliament. Compare the population and political power of those twenty-two boroughs, returning thirty-four Members to Parliament, with the population and political power of Birmingham. You have nearly twice the population but you have only two Members to represent you in Parliament. (Cries of " Shame ")

In Great Britain and Ireland five out of every six men have no vote. If the Members elected out of six millions of men were distributed according to numbers there would be some chatme of a fair representation ; but it is not the case.

Reform Mr. Bright deeeribed as being to a great extent a question be- tween the people and the peers : it is oneethat cannot be evaded—

"it is the greet difficulty in the way of our friends at head-quarters who are for reform, but don't know how to do it. It was the difficulty which Lord Jahn Russell felt. Lord John Russell—I believe you may take my word for it—has probably, from association, from tradition, from his own reading and study, and from his own just and honest sympathies, a more friendly feeling towards this question of Parliamentary reform that any other man of his order as a statesman.. (Cheers.) But, having said this, I must also say—what he too would say if he thought it prudent to tell all he knew—that this is with him the great difficulty. How can I reconcile a free representation of the people in the House of Commons with the inevitable disposition which rests in a hereditary House of Peers ? Now, we must decide this question, Choose you this day whom you will serve.' If the Peers are to be your masters, as they boast that their ancestors were the coequerers of yours, serve you them."

He WAS not going to attack the House of Lords but he could not find what they bad done for liberty- " At least since 1690, or thereabouts, when the Peers became the dominant power in this country, I am not able to discover one single measure impor- tant to human or English freedom-which has come from the voluntary con- sent and goodwill of their House. (Cheers.) And really how should it ? You know what a Peer is. He is one of those fortunate individuals who are described as coming ito the world with silver spoons in their mouths/ (Laughter.) Or to use the more polished and elaborate phraseology of the P08 'Fortune came smiting to his youth and welcomed it, Amid purpled.grsatness met his ripened years.' When he is a boy, among his brothers and sisters he is preeminent ; he es the eldest son ; he will be My Lord ' ; this fine mansion, this beautiful park, these countless farms, this vast political influence, will one day settle on this innocent boy. The servants know it, and pay him greater deference on account of it. He grows up and goes to school and college ; his future position is known ; he has no great incitement to work hard, because what- everffie does it is very difficult for him to improve his fortune in any way. When he leaves college he has a secure position ready-made for him, and there seems to be no reason why he should follow ardently any of these (re. cupations which make men groat among their fellow-men. Ile takes his seat in the House of Peers ; whatever be is character, whatever his intellect, whatever his previous life' whether he be in England or 10,000 miles away, be he tottering down the steep of age, or be he passing through the imbeci- lity of second childhood, yet by means of that charming contrivance—made

only for Peers—vote by proxy, he gives his vote for or against, and, unfor- tunately, too often against, all those great meaaures on which you and the country have set your hearts. (Loud cheers.) There is another kind of Peer which I am afraid to touch upon—that creature of—what shall I say? —of monstrous nay, even of adulterous birth—the spiritual Peer." Alluding to the great diversity of opinion respecting universal suffrage, manhood suffrage, and other proposals, he considered it the duty of Go- vernment to frame a measure which should fairly represent what may be called the reforming opinion of the country- " What have we at present in the way of franchises ? We have the parish franchises. For generations, for ages past, there has been an extensive franchise in all our parishes. We have Poor-law unions, which have worked generally satisfactorily to the couutry. We have a franchise in our Poor- law unions. We have a corporation franchise, and, with the exception of a stupid provision that people shall live in town three years before they can exercise it, that franchise may be said to have worked generally satis- factorily to the country. I will ask any man here whether he believe that in all the parishes, all the poor-law unions, and all the corporations, men have not conducted themselves with great propriety and managed the affairs of their parishes, unions, and corporations satisfactorily ? And I should like to ask them whether they would object to have the same franchise con- ferred upon them for the election of Members to the House of Commons. (Cheers.) There is one great point gained in such a franchise—your regis- tration would be easy and inexpensive. There is another point—that what- ever its omissions, whatever its exclusions, they would not be directed against any one particular class. It would admit the working people to electoral power just as fully as it would admit the middle, or what may be called the higher and richer classes. Therefore, as regards class and class, it would remove a great defect of the Reform Bill, and would give a suffrage so wide that I believe no one would suppose it did not afford a fair repre- sentation of all classes."

He also insisted upon a redistribution of seats.— " I shall be told that I am not to go to the United States for an illustra- tion of this. I will not. I will go a little nearer home. Take the king- dom of Sardinia. I was in Turin last year, and I made inquiries as to the mode of election and the distribution of members there ; and I found that Genoa, with a population of 140,000, returned seven members to the Sar- dinian Parliament. Sardinia is not a Republic, it is a limited Monarchy like our own. Let us go to the colonies of Australia. Take New South Wales. The capital—Sydney—returns eight members to the New South Wales Parliament. In Victoria the city of Melbourne returns thirteen members to Parliament, and by the Bill now introduced by the Minister of that colony the number thirteen is about to be increased to eighteen. I be- lieve that in Belgium and Sardinia, both countries under a limited Monarchy, the same rule applies, and we know that throughout the whole of the United States the number of members is allotted according to the popula- tion. In every ten years this scale is re-arranged,—in fact, it works itself."

He imagined Mr. Disraeli, with rows of figures before him, endea- vouring to make it out that the proper way of reforming Parliament—is to increase the number of landed gentry in the House of Commons ; though already the House of Peers, except a few lawyers and a few suc- cessful soldiers, is composed entirely of landowners- " Have you ever been to the botanical gardens in some of our towns, where a board is put up with the words, No dogs are allowed to enter here ? "rhere is a similar board at the door of the House of Peers, and, though you cannot see it without an imaginary eye, it says, 'No traders admitted here.' " (Cheers and laughter.)

"I believe," said Mr. Bright, it is the opinion of the great body of the Reformers of the United Kingdom that any Reform Bill which pre- tends to be generally satisfactory to reformers must concede the shelter and protection of the ballot."

He warned Government against proposing in lieu of a bill, a delusion and a sham- " It will disappoint everybody ; it will exasperate all the Reformers ; it will render a feeling which is now not bitter both bitter and malignant, and within twelve months after the bill has passed and the cheat is discovered, we shall be entered in all probability upon another agitation, but an agita- tion of a very different character from any we have yet seen." Reformers are now more numerous than ever they were before ; and he threw out a practical suggestion. Why should they not by some arrangement have their own Reform Bill— have it introduced into Parliament and supported with all the strength of this great national party ? and if it be a bill sensibly better than the bill that is being prepared for us in Downing Street, why should we not, with all the unanimity of which we are capable,—by public meetings, by peti- tions, and when the proper time comes by presenting ourselves at the poll- ing-booths,--do everything in our power to pass that measure into law ? At the conclusion of Mr. Bright's address, thanks were voted to him- self and to the Mayor.

On Thursday, Mr. Bright received a deputation from the Birmingham Reformers' Union, headed by Mr. J. S. Wright and other gentlemen. On the subject of practical measures in prosecution of the Reform move- ment, Mr. Bright suggested that the great towns should resume the practice of showing their sentiments by petition' and that in each great town an effort should be made to organize the towns around it. As to the preparation of a bill, he advised them to leave this to the Confe- rence' which would meet next week in London ; and this bill, when pre- pared, might be sent to every constituency, for the purpose of being con- sidered by such associations as the Reformers' Union.