The GLIO Site

REPRESENTATION OF WINCHESTER.

     A numerous meeting of those of the inhabitants of the city who were favourable to the re-election of Mr. Bonham-Carter Member of Parliament, took place on Thursday evening, in the large Market of the Corn Exchange, at eight o'clock. There were upwards of 300 people present, a large portion of whom were electors.
Mr. Alderman proposed that Dr. F.-Crawford should take the chair, which was most unanimously agreed to.
     Dr. F.-Crawford said he was most happy to take the chair in order to further the objects of the evening. The last time he had presided in that hall was when they gave a dinner to their member present directly after his victory on the hustings six years ago, when he was a candidate in conjunction with Mr. Geo. Shaw Lefevre, since returned for Reading, and where he hoped he had secured the love of the inhabitants. He was happy to see his friends collect in so large a number, as it was a good omen of the result of the campaign on which they were about to enter. It was a strange and a hard thing that a man who had fought the winning fight over and over again, and never been defeated, but always victorious, should be destined never yet to take his seat unopposed. One would have thought that eighteen years of faithful and efficient services, and conciliatory conduct to every one, would have insured him his seat without opposition. In the absence, however, of public grounds for a contest, private ambition and private envyings will suffice to wake up strife. He hoped, however, that the good sense, moderation, and tact they had displayed hitherto would again lead them on to victory, and once more place their hon. friend in a position of success. The object of the Liberals should be to become firmly united, and then with zeal they could carry their point. This election would be of a very complicated and unusual kind, and unless their friends were true to themselves and were careful of how they disposed of their second votes, there was a possibility of their hon. friend being let fall to the ground. The new voters constituted nearly one-half of the constituency, and about 800 could come to the poll. There were two opponents last election at first, each on their own footing and determined not to coalesce, yet, at the last pinch, they did virtually coalesce, and the effect led to a very narrow victory for the Liberal side. They need not be surprised to see the candidates on the other side coalesce also this time, virtually, though not openly. Let the Liberals beware how they dealt with their second votes. He would not occupy their time and attention any longer, and he trusted they would hear such a good account of their Liberal member's stewardship in the last six years as to induce the constituency to return him again [hear].

     Mr. Bonham-Carter, M.P. then came forward to the table, and was received with a very hearty round of cheering. He spoke as follows : —Well, gentlemen, it is enough to put a man in good heart to see so many of his friends once again around him [hear.] You ought not to expect a long speech from me on this occasion, as you have given me plenty of hard work as your representative during the past eighteen years, in the course of which I have had many opportunities for action, and especially in the past session, from the first meeting of the House up to the close, and of course, if I have been fully occupied with your work and that of the country, you cannot expect that I have found time enough to enable me now to give you a long oration [hear.] I was engaged on an important committee of the House until four o’clock yesterday, and any apparent shortcomings on my part now, as representing the government of the country, you must put down as the consequence of being fully engaged in doing your labours, and my having very little leisure. My address to the electors, lately issued, and the addresses of those other gentlemen seeking your suffrages, shall form the subject of the few remarks I mean to make.
My esteemed friend, who has known me ever since I first came to the city, has just put before you a few facts of the history of our party. We, the Liberals, have, in fact, very far converted our opponents in favour of our measures, for everything we have done has afterwards become the object of Conservative care —the measures the Liberals passed, by virtue of their creed the Conservatives accept [hear]. Of course, after these measures are carried, it is a part of the duty of all parties to support them, they forming part of the constitution of the country. I, as your representative, am a supporter of Liberal measures, if I believe they are good ones, and I am of opinion that as this country advances in intelligence and wealth, we ought to endeavour to keep abreast with the intelligence of the people [hear]. I will now take the three documents I have alluded to, and one or two others I have in my hand, and try and touch upon one or two points successively.
As to my address. I have been very much occupied of late, and was not aware when Parliament was likely to dissolve. But I had heard rumours were circulated to the effect that I was not going to present myself again for your suffrages, and then I determined to write to every elector on the list. I have been anxious to fulfil the important duties you imposed on me, and if any experience in the past has given me the practical knowledge to fulfil that work properly, my services might well be continued. In regard to the honour of being in the Parliament, you have always hitherto given me what I desired, and even if now it should be my fortune to leave Parliament, my children would bye and bye able to say of me—“he represented Winchester for eighteen years” [hear]. As I have sought nothing beyond doing my duty by you, my re-election to the Parliament will not add much to my honour; it is not for mere personal honour or glory that I covet the seat. It is an honour, certainly, to represent this city in the national legislature, and I have, in that position done all I could during a period of eighteen years for the good of the people of this country in supporting a Liberal government, and now I desire a continuance of your support. The present Parliament I will not say has done everything that might have been expected from it, but it has done much. Hopes which were fairly entertained at its birth never reached fulfilment.
The convulsions in America, happily, thank God, had now terminated; they have, unfortunately, exercised a baneful influence over nearly the whole of the world. Turning our attention to foreign affairs—diplomacy is very difficult game to play, and we in England are not disposed to play a secret game. We approve of an open, straightforward course, and we do not wish to subject this country to the misery and the fearful burdens of war, especially by interfering in that in which they are not concerned [hear]. I do not intend to complain of the sympathy which I know to a great extent exists in this country for the United States of America, whom many honestly believed to be trying the same experiment as North America did on this country when they separated, and that it was just to separate from those with whom they could not agree. Yet, whilst some might say, if the South are just in their demands let them fight it out, others would have gone a great deal further—namely, that the South was not exercising right, but was contending against the Republic, and would have supported them on that ground. If this country had gone with the South, and brought a general war upon us, I do not think we should have met here with as many happy faces as I now am pleased to see around me. [hear] That war brought deep distress upon hundreds of thousands of our people, and how did the country bear it? They would not have acted as they did if it had been 25 years ago, and why? Because the people have now full confidence in the government of the country. Some of the hardest handed and headed artisans of the country have suffered great privations, but it was felt we could not go into war for their sakes, and the consequence was that thousands of pounds of money were subscribed for their relief by the voluntary contributions of the country. Then in some places there were rates-in-aid, and other local means of assistance, and I was noticing that within the last month only the last Relief Committee in Lancashire had closed. Prosperity has been recovered in that great centre of the manufacturing interest, the home of one of the greatest manufactured staples of the country. Our sympathies have been warmer from our knowledge of the suffering of our countrymen, yet we have learnt that we should not aid them by war on that account. And how are all these subjects of great national interest brought within your knowledge? By the wide diffusion of cheap newspapers. These have been given to the people by the party which I support, and thereby also an immense amount of intellectual talent has been employed that formerly was running to waste. In the period of the excitement I have alluded to, Italy, Austria, France, Prussia, and Denmark, in Europe, had all been in trouble, whilst England has preserved her dignity and now stands stronger in the eyes of the world than before, and at the same time enjoying happiness and peace throughout her dominions.
The Treaty with France, to which I have alluded in my Address, has been the means of bringing about an interchange of commerce between the two nations to the extent of fifty millions a year. And this fifty millions are spent by us for something we want and they have, and in return they get fifty millions of something we have and they want [hear]. There was a legitimate profit upon fifty millions and every one amongst the industrious population enjoyed the right of sharing that profit. If the French possessed plenty of wine and wanted our cotton, why should there not be a free interchange of the two articles? and this equally benefiting commerce served in a great measure to prevent the possibility of war between the two countries. The one would not be likely to quarrel with the best customer it had got, and thus there would be formed a guarantee against war [hear]. Under such advantageous circumstances we do not want any increase of the standing army under a centre of authority at the Horse Guards [hear]. We have our Volunteers, and what country but our own in Europe could trust with arms 100,000 free men [cheers]. The Volunteers came forward at a time when they secured a defence to the country much better than stone walls [cheers].
I have a little paper in my hand which I obtained only two days ago, and it is the only document I have brought down from the House of Commons. It contains particulars of the taxes in this country repealed or reduced in the last six years. The Customs duties repealed under the French treaty has been nearly three millions—they have been taken off successively from paper, books, wine, hops and tea. He would not say that an Englishman does not like his beer, but in what does the benefit come home to be shared by man’s wife and family so much, as in that private brew of his own dwelling—the teapot? [hear]. I do not know any article by reducing the duty on which so much good comes home to the people as the reduction of the price of tea, and if this county had of late years gone into war we could not have enjoyed this reduction nor the others. The Excise duty was first reduced, and then was repealed those on hops and paper. The hop duty, of course, affected the price of beer—beer is better and will keep longer when there is plenty of hops in it. The paper duty removal tended much to our general advantage as a nation by giving us cheap newspapers. The high tone the cheap press has taken is wonderful, and it is a pleasing contrast to some of the high priced journals of former days—the Satirist, for instance—whose tenets would scouted by every man here. I take in one paper, a small country issue, called the Sussex Express, with a circulation of about 20,000, and there is hardly a cottage in the district which does not take it; and there is never a word or thought published in it that could make any man blush, or wish it had not been said.
As to the Insurance Duty, one of the latest reductions. Certainly there are not very many of the householders who insure their own premises, yet the reduction tells on them. The Government did all it could towards taking this tax off, a tax upon prudence and forethought, such desirable things to encourage in a people. I will take the present opportunity of calling your attention to one point in particular, as to taxation. I have heard something of one who will vote against all taxes [hear and laughter]. I take it to be a part of the duty of a member of parliament to see how the credit of this country is sustained, and not to vote for indiscriminate reductions.
It was the legitimate business of the Opposition to criticise, but the Opposition do not do this satisfactorily when they object successively to one tax after another. The present Opposition had said, we will take off the malt-tax, and also remit the license-fee which comes so hard upon the lawyers [hear and laughter]. I fear there are several friends present of the profession; but I was not inclined to take any tax off the lawyers before I could take off others to relieve the poor man. I don’t think there is a man in this room would benefit more than I should by the repeal of the malt tax, but I could not put it down for repeal before many others, the removal of which would be of great benefit to the nation [hear]. I don’t think parties should press for great benefits to any particular class, and further I believe if some changes towards repeal were actually made, those so anxious for them would not find the benefit to them so good as they anticipated. What would be one great result of the repeal of the malt tax? There would consequently be a greater money product from the barley produced on the land, and those who occupied the land would immediately have to paymore for it [hear]. The reduction of the income tax has been very considerable, and the charge now on a man’s income is so comparatively light that people arc no longer so much inclined to grumble against it [hear] I would simply ask the inhabitants of this city whether they would have been satisfied if the government had kept on the income tax at the higher rate and lessened the malt duty? The latter would have merely partially relieved—not the towns, but particularly the farmers. I do not believe you would prefer placing a tax upon the incomes of men in trade which they get from their customers, instead of retaining the malt tax. If we had taken off the malt tax we must have put on other taxes in the place of it, and that I am sure would not have given the people of the country satisfaction. And I believe the people are very thankful to the government which relieved them from two millions of taxation last year and three millions this [hear].
There is one point in regard to which I wish to be perfectly plain and straightforward with you as to my opinion, and that is on the question of amending the representation of the people [hear]. I do not wish to press myself on your attention too long, but you see I cannot very well compress a review of six years’ work into a space of ten minutes. This representation question is one of great importance, and by some of those whom we represent it is misunderstood, and with some a matter of difficulty. Those with whom I differ on this question I would ask to deal with it considerately. In many sessions of Parliament this motion before the House of Commons was passed over as comparatively unimportant; but I never thought this an unimportant question, and upon an important matter I would not pass an immature decision [hear]. Any measure of the Government I should be honestly in favour of which would carry out a temperate extension of the franchise —which might include a large addition of those parties now excluded. I have taken trouble and spent time in the endeavour to obtain fuller knowledge on this important question. The House of Commons had desired some measure on the subject to be brought forward, and one had been introduced, the second reading of which had actually been passed by common consent. Then those who were ready to admit additions to the franchise on a large scale were with myself disposed to give a fuller consideration to the question. They required greater information, and would like to obtain various returns. They had not wanted to know that two and two made four, but those who wished to postpone the motion sought further information almost as useless that two and two did make four, and pressed it out by delays; but after all the country did not seem to want great change, and they let the measure go. But I was not of that opinion. I stated on my last return that I would fairly consider a reduction of the franchise, but I did not pledge myself to a distinct reduction of the franchise to a £6 rental. I could not assent to a motion which did so on a late occasion. What has been the result of the late Liberal policy? Has it not been to make every honest independent man more able to obtain the franchise? In the present day I am sure that steady and intelligent men get the franchise earlier and exercise it much better than in times gone past. The increase of prices and the greater value of labour and of houses have brought the franchise within the means of the working men —the cream of the working men, at any rate. I am not against an extension of the franchise to something below a £10 rental, but I would not pledge myself to with any partial measure binding me to a £6 franchise. We have a very strong and vigorous constitution in this country, and we wish to graft something sound upon it—a branch, but not a mere twig. We know that there are many men out of the towns who possess £30 and £40 houses, and these are the first men entitled to the privileges of representation, and should have equal weight in the country with yourself. My father had a great part in bringing forward the Reform Bill of 1832. It gave a voice in the government of the country to a large and intelligent body of the working classes. The question was, If the Reform of 1832 disfranchised the freemen, were we to go so far as to almost recall that decision? We know that in the present day men had the advantage of exercising the right of the franchise both earlier and better than formerly. I have consented to support a reduction as well an extension of the suffrage, but with my views I would not be hasty in the degree and mode of extension of the suffrage, though I would not go with those who decline to give any reduction at all under any circumstances.
I am ready to confess that I am a little ashamed of putting in my appeal to you anything about local interest. You have a municipal body, and you elect men to carry on your own local government. If anything came on as a private bill it was set on foot by a company, and decided by a committee, in which your Parliamentary members would have no power, men being placed on those committees entirely uninterested and independent. In my time it has been my duty to be concerned much in the formation of committees, and I can vouch for this. Y'ou elected me as one of your representatives eighteen years ago, and in regard to all matters of interest and importance connected with the city you have come to me as if I had been a resident, one of yourselves. With regard to strictly Parliamentary matters, I hope you have always found me accessible and attentive to my duties. [A Voice: “How about Petersfield?”] Well, gentlemen, I certainly know something about Petersfield, and I don't think, my friends, you will find that my character is very bad there [hear]. I have property in the borough of Petersfield, and I hope those who occupy under me there are well housed. A reduction of the franchise to £6 in that borough would enfranchise the mere labourer, if you look at the interest of the outlay on his cottage. In these days no man who builds houses with three bedrooms can hope to do with a rent of not more than £6 a year, if he is to regard it as an investment, and I don’t think you yet wish to enfranchise the agricultural labourer.
A free trade policy has brought benefits in regard to sugar and timber and many other smaller objects. The Government had established Post-office Savings’ Banks, and amended the laws of partnership, extending the co-operative societies in the North. I don’t think you consider that your Friendly Societies have suffered by my being your Member. In the last twenty years the country has been covered by railroads, and an immense deal of work has been carried out by the Legislature. So great was the pressure on the members, that they had to work many hours in the day as well as late at night. We have not a ten hours act, members often assemble at twelve in the day, and work, till two of the following night. Parliament is at the present time making rapid progress towards conclusion. Private bills are passing through with great dispatch, and even I myself was sitting, up to yesterday, on a committee which had to deal with the matter of referees, on which their progress greatly depends. Something like four hundred railway bills have been dealt with, all sent to those who give their gratuitous and unpaid duties, over and above their duties of representation on public matters. All this committee work, though it does not appear fully reported in the columns of the Times, yet occupies a great deal of time of the members, and I hope you do not consider their services otherwise than useful [hear and cheers].
As to the progress of the country under a Liberal policy, it was prominent in many ways. Many restrictions on the comforts of the people have been removed. Is any single institution of the county weaker through it? Is not the nation considerably stronger and, in fact, better able to go to war than before, and therefore less likely to be attacked? Is not this the result of our policy? It has been said that our policy is destructive to the Church. I do not think so, and it was never our object. The field is wide, and there is room for other assistance. I remember the time when the same active zeal did not exist in the church. The church has increased in its zeal, and in the affections of the people, and it has a stronger hold, but not so that could dispense with the cooperation of the Dissenters against the common enemy. Are there so few tares among the wheat that every help was not needed to weed them out? Look at the children rising up in London and the large manufacturing towns; the country should rejoice that any one stepped in and helped to teach them some practical religion. No active and earnest clergyman would, in such cases, complain of the Dissenters’ assistance. They are all working for one good. I think we shall never be able to subdue the vice, misery, and ignorance existing among the people without joint exertions of all classes and creeds to the same purpose. Dissent may prosper in reclaiming those with religion without any antagonism to the Church, and concurrently with its increased strength.
      I find that in the addresses of the other two gentlemen calling upon you for your support, they say they are in favour of progress. Why, we have not heard of that word from them until the last few years; not until they had been converted to that word. We are now making them adopt the term. But Conservative progress is no more than ‟marking time.” [laughter ] They appear to be moving, but they do not get on. [cheers and laughter] If you want things done for the country I should advise you to send Liberals to Parliament, and if want them carefully done, send some Conservatives, but not too many. A good opposition keeps us to our work. The Conservatives seem to say, “You lay down the line and we will run the train’’ [hear]. But we say, ‟We have laid down the line and we will run the train” [cheers]. I do not say the Conservatives shall not have one member here, but let them not monopolise the representation. How could you fairly or honestly desert your first love? [hear] If you do at any rate you will make yourselves liable to the charge of bigamy. Don’t, therefore, underrate what you are now going to do. I have the greatest reason to be proud of my constituency. You all have a duty to perform, and it is for you to say how the government of the country have conducted their work during the last six years. When others say to you “we will follow their example,” don't take them; but again take those who are ready to go on with the work in hand with hearty purpose and a honest endeavour do their best. There are a great many working men here, and many of you are admitted into tho present franchise. The true interests of working men are, I assure you, knit up in the progress of a Liberal policy. If you pick me up with one hand and knock me down with the other. I shall come to the ground. Will you in this city give your voice for continuing the Government which has done so much good. If you do when it comes to a vote in the House of Commons the majority will be in favour of progress; at all events, do not send two members to Parliament who will stop the progress of the nation [hear]. I thank you sincerely for the attention with which you have heard me, and I can assure you that what I have said as to the course you are to take, though indifferently expressed, must not be lightly thought of, but seriously considered in view of the approaching contest.—Mr. Carter resumed his seat amidst spontaneous applause.

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