London, November 13. An exceptionally well attended meeting 
was held in St. Martin’s Hall last night. The notices announcing 
the meeting spoke of “a joint demonstration against the recent 
expulsions from Jersey, the proposed Alien Bill %’ and the present 
war policy”.* The last point, however, was dropped to ensure 
concord on the other two points. The chairman, Mr. Edward 
Miall, M.P., gave a survey of the events which led to the expulsion 
and then continued: 

“The simple object of this meeting is to protest both against the past and 
against the future. We claim on behalf of political exiles here the right 
of asylum (cheers) on the simple ground that they are political exiles 
(cheers), whose misfortunes suffice to secure our sympathy and _ protection 
(cheers). We do not ask what politics they profess or what might be the party 
in their own country to which they belong. We make no distinction between 
prince and plebeian in this respect. (Cheers.) We want the right of sanctuary to be 
accorded equally to all who come to these shores. Hitherto we have done this 
impartially. We have extended our hand to Prince Louis Napoleon, just as we 
sheltered a forgotten monarch under the name of John Smith.” (Cheers and 
laughter.) We have granted the protection of our laws to Orleanists, Fusionists, 
Royalists and Republicans not according to the policy of the rulers of the country from 
which they fled, but according to the laws of this country. (Cheers.) Our national 
hospitality has bid them all a cordial welcome. Among others we have held in high 
esteem Kossuth (prolonged applause) whom The Times recently called the noble 
Magyar, we have likewise afforded Mazzini the protection he sought. (Loud 
applause.) We had not thought it necessary to inquire whether the political views of 
these men were in accordance with our own; it sufficed that they were exiles from 
their own country for political causes, and their misfortunes were a sufficient passport 

* Below follows a summary of a report of this meeting published in The Times, 
No. 22210, November 13, 1855.— Ed. 
> Louis Philippe.— Ed. 

to our sympathies. (Cheers.) This is what we claim for the Jersey [...] refugees. (Hear, 
hear!) This is what we claim for all who come to these shores and we will not bate one 
jot of our national hospitality at the bidding of any one. (Loud and prolonged cheers.) 
It is therefore fitting that those who come here should be welcomed to the full 
enjoyment of British liberty and not merely to a prison. (Hear, hear!) There must be 
no registration of political refugees, no police surveillance. (Hear, hear!) The freedom 
of these persons, just as our own, must not be placed in the hands of any minister or 
the Crown’, etc. 

After Mialls fairly long speech, which was greeted with 
tremendous applause and did not pass off without fierce attacks 
on Louis Napoleon and Austria, Mr. Washington Wilks read the 
following letter from Cobden: 

“My dear Sir,—I cannot, I am sorry to say, take a part in your demonstration 
against the arbitrary treatment of M. Victor Hugo and his brethren in exile. But 
although distance from town and other engagements prevent me from being 
present, I sympathize very cordially with the promoters of the meeting. Surely such 
proceedings as those which you are meeting to protest against ought to open the 
eyes, of at least that part of the public which is supporting the war (cries of oh, 
oh) from a sympathy with liberalism abroad, as to the gross delusion that has been 
practised on their credulity (cries of oh, oh) by those who have told them that in 
the hands of our present Government the war in which we are engaged is a 
struggle for liberty. (Hisses and cheers.) Depend on it, the tendency, both at 
home and abroad, ever since the peace of Europe was broken, has been the very 
reverse; and give us but a few years more of war, and we shall find ourselves 
retrograding to the dark political doings of Sidmouth’s evil days. ”° (Cries of no, no, 
hissing and cheering.)” 

R. Cobden 
The meeting then passed the following resolution: 

“That this meeting utters its indignant protest against the recent expulsion of 
refugees from Jersey, and affirms that foreigners landing in the dominion of the 
British Crown become at once entitled to the natural and legal right of 
Englishmen—a public examination and trial by jury before exposure to any penal 
consequences. That this meeting pledges itself and calls upon the country to resist 
by all lawful means the apprehended attempt to carry through Parliament an act 
invalidating or restricting the right of sanctuary.” 

This demonstration will be followed by quite a number of 
similar ones. Incidentally I cannot refrain from observing that the 
whole refugee question consists of much smoke and little fire. 
Public opinion has definitely turned against the government, but I 
also believe that this uproar was allowed for in the government’s 
calculations. The government responded to Louis Napoleon’s first 
demands so clumsily, tragi-comically and blusteringly merely to 
demonstrate the fact to him that further concessions were beyond 
the power of a British government. Had it been in earnest, the 
government would have proceeded more skilfully and would not 

Meeting in Support of Political Refugees 583 

have struck in such a grotesque way and so long before the opening 
of Parliament. Palmerston does not love the refugees, but he regards 
them as a means which he must keep at hand so as to be 
able to threaten the Continent with them when the occasion arises. 
I am convinced that just now the refugees have less reason for 
anxiety than ever before.