BEFORNI MEETINGS.
Mr. Edward Miall has been wooing the electors of Banbury as the head of a deputation from the London Parliamentary Reform Associa- tion. The local society convened a meeting for him on the 29th October. The gist of Mr. Miall's speech was that neither of the two great parties in the House of Commons can be trusted to benefit the people by a Reform Bill. In the present Ministry he professed no belief at all, and Reform is not one of the things that has laid hold of the sympathies of Lord Palmerston's heart- What we -want is household suffrage, vote by ballot, equal electoral districts and short Parliaments.
That is the programme of the Reform Committee. It can only be fully carried out by reformers putting their ideas together into a bill to be brought before Parliament. Such a bill is in course of preparation. In his judg- ment, and iu the judgment of rational reformers, there is but one man in the House of Commons who is in every way qualified to present such a bill in the House of Commons, and that is his friend, Mr. Bright, the Member for Birmingham. He believed that such a bill would be laid upon the table of the House of Commons at an early period of the next session, but in order that there might be some chance of its success constituencies should urge upon their representatives to give it all the support in their power. The Liberal Association of Lincoln dined together on Monday, and after dinner their leaders made speeches and 'pledged their hearers to promote Parliamentary reform.
Previous page
