After mutual deliberation, the Middle and Working Classes have agreed upon the basis of a representative system—both parties accept the principles of the National Reform Association. They are—“1st. The extension of the Suffrage to every Occupier of a Tenement, or portion of a Tenement. 2nd, Vote by Ballot. 3rd. Triennial Parliaments. 4th. A more equal apportionment of Members to Population, 5th. The abolition of the Property Qualification.” Such a Reform carried in its integrity would make the House of Commons the embodiment and expression of the mind and will of the people; and with this, and with nothing less, should the people be content. To work, not words, we must devote the next few weeks for the advancement of our political rights, and to the means of alleviating the burdens of our fellow men. Republished by order of the Committee of the Dudley Mutual Improvement Society.
DUDLEY REPRESENTATION.
(From the Daily News, December 1st, 1849.)
Dudley was enfranchised by the Reform Bill. It is the centre of a manufacturing district; it contains a population of nearly five and thirty thousand; it has 1,300 £10 householders, of whom nearly 1,000 were registered electors: corruption has not been practised in it, and nevertheless it returns a strong Tory representative, and, under existing circumstances, would continue to do so, let the suffrage be extended as it might.
It will at once be inquired—what is the cause of this? An anomaly is here presented which requires explanation. These facts, it will be said, appear to militate against the arguments in daily use—that the feeling of the country is Liberal—that the people are well fitted to receive an extended suffrage—and that the large manufacturing constituencies are the most enlightened, and, as a rule, return the most useful representatives. It will be observed, too, that the position of Dudley appears the more anomalous because the town is immediately adjacent to, and in many respects materially influenced by, Birmingham and Wolverhampton—places which may almost be described as centres of political enlightenment. It will be asked how these things are to be accounted for and reconciled. In dealing with the borough system of England it is certainly our duty not to pass them over.
The Toryism which is predominant at Dudley is a very peculiar Toryism. It is a low and vulgar Toryism; an ignorant and very brutal Toryism. As a rule Toryism is the aristocratic principle of England: it presents itself in the flowing wig and ruffle style of the early days of George the Third; it boasts of long descent and ancient pedigree, and, as many a Tory of the present day will tell you, came to him as an inheritance with his family plate and pictures. But the Toryism of Dudley is nothing of this sort; there is not a Tory in the town who can boast of his grandfather; it is difficult to put your finger upon a member of the party who is entitled to the position and reputation of a gentleman. A coarser and more vulgar crew than the Tories of the town of Dudley, high and low, it would be impossible to pitch upon in any community in England.
The Toryism of Dudley is a Toryism of ignorance—a Toryism of habit—a Toryism of self interest—and a Toryism of coercion. We have been in places where Toryism was the representative of loyalty. At Dudley they care as much about the Sovereign as they do about the President of France. There are other towns where Toryism shadows forth the Church of England, and where Tories march in array to the poll with a view, as they believe, to keep dissent in check. At Dudley the Tories profess no Church principle, nor, indeed, any description of religious principle. Up to 1845, when a diocesan effort was made to civilize this locality, there were few places where the Church was so completely useless—where it was so apt a representation of the dried up well of the desert in which thousands are perishing of thirst. Even now, when the Church is making some effort to enlighten this depraved and almost heathen population, it is not the Tories of Dudley who support its efforts, nor the Tories of Dudley who promote its usefulness.
And this fact shadows forth one of the great causes of the Toryism of this town. We have said that the Toryism of Dudley is a Toryism of ignorance. The ignorance of Dudley Tories is not mere personal ignorance—though there is an ample amount of that—but it is an entire and utter ignorance of the population amongst which they live. That population is a most important population. It is almost exclusively a mining population. Within the parish of Dudley there exists 32,000 souls: but within a circle of three or more miles around it there are scarcely less than 100,000 more, and the great proportion of these are engaged exclusively in the mining operations of the district. Talk of our large towns—why the population of the parishes of Dudley, and of Tipton, Clent, Kingswinford, Sedgley, and West Bromwich, all in close proximity to Dudley, equal the population of Birmingham itself! What is the condition of this population? Who cares for and protects this enormous mass of labouring poor? The Dudley Tories—for whom so many of them labour? We lament to say not one of them.
It is a painful fact to record, but we do believe that there is not one of the employers of the Dudley district who knows one per cent. of the men who toil and labour to produce his wealth. Take England through, and you will not find a locality where there is not so little sympathy between the employers and employed, but such an utter regardlessness on the part of the former of every single interest appertaining to the latter. It is upon the records of official evidence that they omit even the commonest precautions for the preservation of their lives. Human existence here is treated as a cheap commodity. Those horrible pit accidents, of which we hear so frequently—(and yet, in comparison of the frequency of their occurrence, so very rarely)—proper precautions would prevent one half of them—precautions entailing trouble and expense no greater than is the bounden duty of every master to provide.