Mr. George Potter, Col. Dickson, Mr. George Howell, and Mr. J. A. Partridge, in addition to the various chairmen named. Reform resolutions were passed with acclamation, and great enthusiasm was manifested for Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright at all the meetings.

In the evening a soirée was held in the Town Hall, attended by several thousand persons. The Mayor, Mr. E. Yates, presided at the subsequent public meeting, and there were present, amongst others, Mr. Scholefield, M.P., Mr. Bright, M.P., Mr. Cave, M.P., Col. Dickson, Mr. E. Beales, Mr. Mason Jones, Mr. Ernest Jones, Mr. E. O. Greening, the Ven. Archdeacon Sandford, the Revs. G. B. Johnson, T. H. Morgan, J. Lord, F. W. Beynon, and H. E. Dowson; Aldermen Ryland, Sadler, Holland, Palmer, and Osborne; seventeen members of the Town Council; and Messrs. W. Middlemore, C. Sturge, J. Jaffray, G. Dixon, H. Manton, J. H. Chamberlain, J. S. Manton, J. A. Partridge, W. Morgan, J. S. Wright, J. T. Bunce, and Mr. G. Edmonds-the last-named gentleman, as one of the few living relicts of the great agitation of 1830-32, being vociferously cheered. Addresses were presented to the borough members.

Mr. Bright was the chief speaker at the meeting. He referred to the vast assemblies which had already been witnessed in London and Birmingham on the Reform question-assemblies such as had not been seen for a generation past. He next went through the erroneous estimate of the late Government as to

the numbers of working men proposed to be admitted under their bill, and showed that in the boroughs of England and Wales only 200,000 would have been admitted. He quoted Mr. Lowe's denunciation of the working classes, and condemned his policy, urging his hearers to press on in their agitation for restoring the British constitution with all its freedom to the British people. Working men in this hall,' he continued, 'I wish my voice had been loud enough to have said what I am about to say to the vast multitude which we looked on this day; but I say it to them through the press, and to all the working men of this kingdom,-I say that the accession to office of Lord Derby is a declaration of war against the working classes. The course taken in London the other day by the police, and it had almost been by the military, is an illustration of the doctrines and the principles of the Derby Administration. They reckon nothing of the constitution of their country.'

The hon. gentleman further observed, 'You are to be told that you are so ignorant and so venal, so drunken, so impulsive, so unreflecting, and so disorderly, that it is not even safe to skim off, as it were, the very cream of you to the number of 116,000, or it may be of 204,000, and to admit these to a vote for members of the House of Commons. This is the Tory theory. This is the faith of Lord Derby and his party.' Then came this amusing description of Lord Derby's Ministry, which was received with roars of laughter: The Government of Lord Derby in the

House of Commons sitting all in a row reminds me very much of a number of amusing and ingenious gentlemen whom I dare say some of you have seen and listened to. I mean the Christy Minstrels. The Christy Minstrels, if I am not misinformed, are, when they are clean-washed, white men; but they come before the audience as black as the blackest negroes, and by this transformation it is expected that their jokes and songs will be more amusing. The Derby minstrels pretend to be Liberal and white; but the fact is, if you come nearer and examine them closely, you will find them to be just as black and curly as the Tories have ever been. I do not know, and I will not pretend to say, which of them it is that plays the banjo and which the bones. But I have no doubt that, in their manoeuvres to keep in office during the coming session, we shall know something more about them than we do at present; they are in point of fact, when they pretend to be Liberal, mere usurpers and impostors.'

Mr. Bright said that he was not afraid of the principles of the Reform League. He had no fear of manhood suffrage, and no man was more а friend of the ballot than he was. After exhorting his hearers to constant effort in their great work, he thus concluded his speech, the applause when he sat down being again and again renewed: The address. which has been presented to me has referred to 1832. I remember that time well. My young heart then was stirred with the trumpet-blast that sounded from

your midst. There was no part of this kingdom where your voice was not heard. Let it sound again. Stretch out your hands to your countrymen in every part of the three kingdoms, and ask them to join you in a great and righteous effort on behalf of that freedom which has been so long the boast of Englishmen, but which the majority of Englishmen have never yet possessed. I shall esteem it an honour which my words cannot describe, and which even in thought I cannot measure, if the population which I am permitted to represent should do its full duty in the great struggle which is before us. Remember the great object for which we strive. Care not for calumnies and lies. Our object is this-to restore the British constitution in all its fulness, with all its freedom, to the British people.'

Manchester followed Birmingham, and on the 24th of September a demonstration was held in Campfield, at which were present a vast number of persons, estimated at from eighty to a hundred thousand. In the evening a great meeting was held in the Free Trade Hall. The Manchester Examiner of the following day stated that long before the appointed time for the commencement of the proceedings, every part of the building was so crowded that it was impossible to find standing-room. It was therefore determined that the business should be at once proceeded with. The appearance of Mr. T. B. Potter, Mr. (now Sir) Wilfrid Lawson, Mr. Edmond Beales, Mr. Ernest Jones, and other well-known Reformers,

was the signal for loud and prolonged cheering. After an interval of eager waiting, Mr. John Bright, M.P., appeared upon the platform, and thereupon ensued such a scene as had not been witnessed in Manchester for many years. The entire mass of the audience saluted Mr. Bright with cheers, and waving of hats and handkerchiefs; and the band played the tune of Auld Lang Syne.' Instantly the appropriateness of this chorus to the renewal of intercourse between Mr. Bright and his former constituents was perceived, and the entire audience joined as one man in singing the chorus, taking it up and repeating it again and again, and concluding by saluting Mr. Bright with a hearty cheer. Mr. T. B. Potter, M.P., took the chair; and amongst those present, besides the gentlemen named above, were Mr. B. Whitworth, M.P., Mr. Fildes, M.P., Mr. George Wilson, Mr. Jacob Bright, Sir James Watts, Mr. Wright Turner, the Rev. Thomas Binney, Prof. Rogers, Mr. B. Armitage, the Rev. Dr. Parker, Ald. Carter of Leeds, Ald. Ashworth of Rochdale, Prof. Greenbank, Rev. S. A. Steinthal, Mr. Samuel Watts, the Hon. Lyulph Stanley, etc. An address was presented to Mr. Bright, and in his reply the hon. gentleman again advocated a large extension of the franchise, with the protection of the ballot. He sharply attacked Lord Derby and his friends, charging them with having set class against class. They had done much also to separate the Parliament from the nation; they had made the House of Commons the reviler instead of the pro