Vrnuiurro.
At a very large meeting of the Manchester Financial and Parliamentary Reform Association, on Wednesday, Mr. Milner Gibson and Mr. Bright appeared before their constituents with an account of their stewardship, and a report of the Parliamentary progress up to the Easter week. In the crowded assemblage, which filled closely the immense Free-trade Hall, there was gathered a strong muster of that portion of the consti- tuency which adheres to the ultra-Protestant views of the Reverend Mr. Stowell, and condemns Mr. Gibson and Mr. Bright for the course they have taken in Parliament against the Anti-Papal legislation ; but, on the other hand, the Roman Catholics of the town came in great strength to the support of their Liberal representatives. The confident mode in, which Mr. Gibson attacked the former party by suggesting that the Pro- testantism of Mr. Bright might be found more pure than that of Mr. Stowell, indicates that the supporters of the impugned Members are the stronger party in the Manchester republic. Mr. Bright skilfully led opinion from that special topic to the wider question of State and Church connexion, and to the more pressing and existing evils of "that monstrous and infamous institution the Protestant Church in Ireland." His strength of epithet on this point once led to a Protestant ebullition, which was only calmed by the chairman's threat to introduce the Police : but Mr. Bright reclaimed the sympathetic interest of the Protestants by reference to the project of a Diocesan Synod now entertained by that Pre- late "with an aspect of decided unrest in his eye," the Bishop of Exeter ; and by the statement that a gentleman very well informed on these mat- ters told him in the House of Commons on Monday, that he believed three hundred clergymen of the Church of Rngland are preparing to secede to the Church of Rome. The indications of local opinion towards the Mem- bers, however, were perhaps too balanced to guide the distant observer, and the most general interest is found in the references to the attitude of the Manchester party on general questions. Both Mr. Gibson and Mr. Bright showed great distrust of the Ministerial promise for next session, of Franchise-reform. Mr. Gibson warned Lord John Russell, that England can now no more have a little reform than she can carry on " a little war." No petty meddling with a few of the corrupt boroughs, perhaps extending their boundaries and adding to them a few agricultural Afembers, will suffice. The new Reform Bill must secure that every Member of Parliament shall be responsible to a large and independent electoral body ; and it must be accompanied by the ballot. In reference to Free Trade, Mr. Gibson seemed to feel little anxiety ; it was a Protectionist majority which repealed the Corn-laws, and there need be no fear that the Protectionists will be able to reenact them. Mr. Bright avowed a strong suspicion, that unless the people come to the rescue they will not get much of a Reform Bill next session ; for. both Lord John Russell and Sir James Graham laid a suspicious emphasis on the word "caution." Mr. Bright, like Mr. Gibson, insisted that the bal- lot must be given ;, the refusal of it next session will make any reform in- complete, and be a test of insincerity in the cause. Referring to a former dissection of the Cabinet by himself, he repeated the operation now that the members ofthat body are somewhat changed ; and, finding that every one of there is a Pear or the relation al a. Peer' he concluded by again asking his former question "How is it possible that these thirteen men
should discuss round the question, the merits of a Reform Bill, in the spirit in which it would be discussed by the people ? " Under a thorough Reform Bill, half of these men would never find their way into the Cabi- net at all. But there is no real adhesion between the Whig supremacy of two or three families and the party which sits on their side of the House ; for they refuse to govern on the principles and policy of the ma- jority who appear nominally as their friends in Parliament.
Mr. Bright made his peroration turn on a defence of the distinctive politi- cal creed of the "Manchester party." "We are called the Manchester party," and our policy the 'Manchester policy ' ; and this building, I sup- pose, is the school-room of the 'Manchester echoeL' Now, I do not repu- diate that name at all. I think it an honour to ourselves, an honour to you, that by your own intelligence, your sacrifices, your combinations, your in- trepidity, you have actually marked the impress of your minds and of your convictions upon the policy of the greatest empire of the globe. We have principles, mid we intend to stand by them. We have our own self- respect only by so doing ; and whatever influence we may have in the coun- try or in Parliament arises simply from that—that men here, as in Parlia- ment, know that we believe what we say, that we are anxious to carry into action the principles which we honestly propound." (Cheers.)
In a parenthesis he vindicated his own independence ; reminded his hearers, that if they return at the next election the two most respectable gentle- men whom they might have returned at the last, those gentlemen will walk into the House of Commons and be lost in the mass of unquestioning and un- hesitating supporters of the Whig Government. He denounced the "in- eradicable toadyism," beyond hope and equally beneath contempt, of "some men in Manchester "; and stimulated those who are politically timid from ignorance of history, or from constitutional infirmity. He resumed the thread of his peroration with a special allusion to this last "timid" class.
"Let these men bear in mind, that we-1 will say we, for we are all one party, having one aim—we propounded principles ten years ago that were said to be dangerous. By the combinedaction of the people of England those principles have been carried into law. The people have gained immensely. The whole world applauds. The fame of Sir Robert Peel, perhaps the greatest and in his last years the best of our statesmen—the fame of Sir Ro- bert Peel is based upon the enactment of a policy which was proclaimed from this platform, amidst the acorn and obloquy of some of those who now denounce us. And at this very moment, the very reason, they say, that Lord John has been maintained in power, is that he must support the policy that we advocated for years, while he repudiated it. (Cheers.) Let these timid gentlemen take heart from the past. Our principles are not rash, they are not unsound. We have no interest in public misfortune, in public convulsion. sOar industry thrives in peace ; all that we have in the world depends upon the permanence and the success of whatever is valuable in the institutions of the country. I am not afraid of the future. We have not, it is true, as the chosen people of old had, the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of-fire by night to lead us through the wilderness of human passions and of human errors but He who vouchsafed the cloud and the fire has not left us forsaken. We lave a guide not leas certain—a light not less clear; we have before us the great principles of justice and of mercy which Christianity has taught ms, and which philosophy and reason alike sanction. Let us go on and trust these principles. Let us believe that they will exist for ever, founded un- changeably in the providence of God ; and if we build our national polity Amon them, rest assured that in our day and generation we shall do all that lies in our power to promote that which the good and the patriotic of Eng- lishmen in all ages have panted for—to promote the lasting happiness and prosperity of this great nation." A resolution of confidence in the zeal, talent, and faithfulness of the two Members and of encouragement to them "to go on in the same course," with a pledge to use all legal and proper means for their return at the mext eleetion, was carried "all but unanimously," amidst very general .and very strong demonstrations of entheeiesm
Bright, M.P. for Manchester, has declined to accept the invitation Is become a candidate for Rochdale at the next dissolution of Parliament ; because he does not conceive it consistent with his public duty voluntarily -to abandon the post which he now occupies.
IS is stated that the Protectionist tenant-farmers of Oxfordshire are organizing an opposition to the two Members whom they returned as Pro- tectionists, and axe purposing to replace Mr. Harcourt and Lord Norreys with representatives chosen from the tenant-farmers themselves.
By the death of the Honourable Captain Dudley Pelham, a vacancy is made in the representation of Boston. Captain Pelham succeeded the pre- sent Sir James Duke ; and be is likely to be succeeded by another member of the London Corporation. Mr. Alderman Wire addressed the constitu- ency on Tuesday, as a very Liberal candidate.
The inhabitants of Liverpool find that the family of the late Mr. Rush- ton, the Stipendiary Magistrate, is left in straitened circumstances : in token ef their respect for the memory of Mr. Rushton, they have resolved to raise a fluid for the family, and it is expected that 10,000/. will shortly be subscribed.
Captain George Symea, late of the Madras Artillery, has been killed by two ruffians. Captain Syraes lived at a house on the road between Axmin- ster and Lyme Regis ; one night, being disturbed by the noise of two men outside his house, he went to the door and requested them to move away ; they attacked him; threw him down knelt on his chest, and beat him on the head with a stick, so that he did in a few hours. The two ruffians are M custody.
A robbery of upwards of 4001. has been effected at the Royal Gunpowder Works, Waltham. During the night of the8th, the storekeeper's office was entered, the iron doors of a closet forced open, and the money-chest re- moved. The lid of the chest had been shattered to pieces by an explosion of gunpowder, which had been poured into the keyhole. Sixteen twenty- pound notes and about 1001. in gold were carried off Four persons have -been arrested on suspicion—Rowe, a publican, two watchmen employed on the works, and a costermonger. On Rowe were found twenty-seven sove- reigns and five ten-pound notes, and a hundred sovereigns were discovered in a tin canister hidden in his hay-loft. Gold was also found in the posses- sion of the watchmen.
We described last week how three servant-girls at March—Mary Ann Button, Sarah Archer, and Sarah Ann Roberta—resolved to "die together," and took laudanum in execution of their resolve; how the three girls were found stretched side by side in a field insensible from the poison ; and how
in the case oflutton the dose proved fatal. An inquest has been held on the body of Sutton. It seems that Sutton and Archer had been severely rebuked by their master for dishonest conduct ; that in shame and excite- ment they resolved to commit suicide ; that a romantic attachment existed between Sutton and Roberts, who were in service next door to each other, and Roberta after persuasion resolved to die with the other two from love for Mary Sutton ; and that the lives of Archer and Roberts were saved because they took larger quantities than Sutton and were made to vomit by the dose. After hearing the law explained by the Coroner, the Jury found a verdict of "Febe de so" againstSutton, and a verdict of "siding and abetting in the crime of murder" against Archer and Roberti/.
Some 300001. worth of property has been burnt at Liverpool by a tire which broke out in a cotton-shed near the Nelson Dock.
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