The Press. — London, England, 1853-11-19 00:00:00

684 THE PREMIER'S GUILDHALL SPEECH. [The following is an authentic copy of the speech which the Premier had intended to deliver at Guildhall on lord Mayor's day, hut which the arrival of certain telegraphic despatches induced him to discard fur the address which the country has perused with so much ratinfaction.) THE EAR!. Or ABERDEEN : My Lord Mayor, I beg to return you my cordial thanks for the flattering expressions you have used towards me and my colleagues. Perhaps it is not too much to wish, though it may be rather too much under the circumstances to expect, that we should have n favourable construction placed upon our motives and intentions. We have, lam well aware, been standing for the last four or five months in a more humiliating position than England is aecus towed or satisfied to see occupied by those who have charge of her honour and her interests. lam free to confess, my Lord Mayor, that the situation in which we have been content to remain is one the apparent disgrace of which (solid only be atoned for by ultimate and complete success. But if it be proved that we have stooped to conquer, have crouched to rise, have crawled to tower, then in it trading country where the end elevates the means, and where the question is, not whether a course were honourable, but whether it were successful, then, my dear Lord Mayor, I think our protracted degraila thin will be deemed but an enhaneement of our triumph. My daily organ may this day have prepared you in some measure for the grati fying announcement I have now to make, for you have been told that rumours from all quarters represent that the Oriental question has been virtually adjusted. I have now at once to give that assuranee more amply and more definitely, and to apprise you that, thanks to Providence, the Oriental question is settled. The armies of the North will be withdrawn from Turkey, the reasonable demands of the Czar being complied with, while the honour and integrity of the Ottoman empire are maintained, and Europe is freed from the apprehensions of war. (Expected enthusiastic eheeriny.) Yes, my Lord Mayor, such are the fruits of our much-vituperated negotiations, such are the results of our patience and liongsutfering. England has been insulted anti derided, but England has her reward. Russia is appeased, Turkey protected, peace restored. (More expected cheering.) And now, my Lord Mayor, to turn to domestic topics. 1 must say that her Majesty's Ministers look with entire satisfaction at the prosperous condition of the country. It is true that trade is everywhere depressed, and that in the City, here, your merchants, terrified at the condition of foreign affitirs, know not whether to buy or to sell, and prefer the lesser be cause certain evil of being ruined by doing nothing. It is true that the funds have sunk, that thousands of workmen are everywhere on strike, to-t i ny eating the bread of idleness, but to-morrow, it may be, toasting it at the tires of sedition. It is true that, thanks to our volley, bread once fourpence is now thirteen-pence, and that humble and peaceful men are looking with sadness to a miserable winter, the grief of some of them but slightly alleviated by the forethought which has brought down the income tax to reach them. But what are these trifles, while the country beholds in office a Ministry which promises leforMS so splendid, that it has felt ashamed, during its tenure of office, to spoil their effect by giving anything on account? I should feel myself degraded did I argue the question. Pressed by the Leader of Opposition, pinned down to a solemn pledge, and the pill clenched on the other side, my noble friend the Leader of the House of Connnons has undertaken, "by all that gods can bind," to bring forward, at an early petits' of the session, a large and com prehensive measure of reform. The nation has marked that pledge, and awaits its redemption. It is not for me to state what the mea sure is—for any statement of mine would be hypothetical—my noble friend is rather fidgetty about letting me see his papers—but I am justified in saying that it will be a measure worthy alike of the time which so imperatively called for it, that not a petition on the subject has been presented to either House, and of the graceful and spontaneous way in which it was promised, not as a party move, or in default of a better answer to charges of neglect, but as the announce ment of a statesman's conviction of a nation's decree. But, my Lord Mayor, this grand measure, whose mere promise is to make England forget her depreciated funds, her agitated trade, her thousands of threatening idlers, and her myriads of trembling workers, could only be introduced and elaborated in a time of peace Had our negotia tions failed, and had what have been called our blunders resulted in war, our pledge of reform must have been unredeemed, an] the breaches in the walls of our constitutional Zion have been unrepaired, for it is not in turmoil and excitement that men cam calmly and profitably discuss legislative ameliorations. Therefore, my Lord Mayor, I am doubly happy in announcing to you to-night, not only the certainty of peace, but of reform ; and I will only add, that, if I exult in the good news of which I thus apprise you, I do so only because I believe it to be the duty of a Christian man to give himself a puff whenever he gets a chance. Tremesdoes cheeriny was expected to (vilely the conclusion qf the Noble Burrs addreu.) SATURDAY, THE NEW ELDER BROTHER. ON Wednesday last the Right Hon. the Earl of ABERDEEN was made an Elder Brother of the Trinity House. The operation was performed with great skill and hu►nanity, and, notwithstanding the advanced age of the patient, he was enabled to entertain the Cabinet Ministers at dinner in the evening. Several of them state that they were very much entertained indeed, the Noble Earl having favoured them with a g►aphic account of what had taken place in the morning. Some de. tails which could be communicated without breach of confidence have been given to our reporter. It appears that, on the adding a new Elder Brother to a society which takes charge of the interests of navigation, it is usual to submit him to a brief examination. This has of late become a mere form, but the Earl of ABERDEEN insisted upon being subjected to a strict catechizing. No man, he said, was less afraid of being asked ques tions than himself all he hated was, as had been seen in the House of Lords, the being expected to give answers. He was therefore ex amined as fidlows Q. hoes your Lordship understand navigation? A. l sheuld be sorry to say that I understood anything; but I have wailed on various tacks in my time. Q. What is the mariner's compass ? A. An invention much resembling her Majesty's present Govern ment, its principal feature being a stiff' yet vacillating article, but which, under all circumstances, turns to the North for direction. Q What is longitude ? A. I can best illustrate it by a speech of my colleague the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Q. What is latitude ? A. I can best illustrate it by a speech of my colleague the First Lord of the Admiralty, especially when he is abusing those who have no opportunity to reply. Q. How do you rectify the Globe ? A. By contradicting it in the Times. Q. What are the Poles ? A. Great nuisances. I wish you would not talk of them a valued friend of mine has suffered much from their ingratitude. Q. What is a degree ? A. The terill which indicates how much more helpless my friend Sir C. Wood was than any previous Chancellor of the Exchequer. Q. What is the use of the Quadrant ? A. It is of no use now Before they spoiled it by pulling down the columns, it was very useful as at shelter during rain. Q. What is an observation ? A. A remark. Palmerston makes very impertinent ones, especially about me, and some other people laugh at them who ought to know better. I mention no names, but if Russell and Graham were here they would understand me. Q. What is a log ? A. Let us go on to the next. I hate egotism. Q. What is a buoy ? A. The Lord Privy Seal is one, and a smart one, and in forty or fifty years' time may do me credit. Q. What do you mean by a bearing ? A It's what those stockjobbers do, and I wish you'd ask them what they mean by it. I don't understand it, but it sends City men down to us growling dreadfully, and saying that our blunders have something to do with it. Q. What is a knot ? A. A clique, or Coalition. Also the state into which a Coalition has got the Oriental question ; but it was not my fault, because I always wanted everything left to a friend of mine, who understood the matter better than we did. Q. What is the use of heaving the lead overboard ? A. Ah ! now you've got hold of Graham's jokes. That is his rude way of hinting that a new Premier is wanted; but I wittily tell him—ha! ha !—that lead is better than brass ; lm ! ha! ha ! Brass — do you take ?—ha! ha! ha! This sparkling witticism threw its utterer and all his brothers into such convulsions of laughter that the examination ended. THE PRESS. JUDICIAL PLEASANTRIES. IT is quite enlivening, these foggy days, to witness the bright col.- ruscations that occasionally flash from the judicial anvil in Westminster Hall. (in Wednesday Mr. Maenamara applied to the Court of Common Pleas to make a rule absolute for a new trial, the defend ant having been taken by t 4 urprise. It appeared that his attorney had been misled by the Times newspaper, which stated that the Court would sit at eleven o'clock, when in fact it sat at ten. In showing cause, Mr. Watson stated that the attorney had only conic down to court at half-past ten to instruct counsel, and was then looking about to " call one from the stand, as he would a cab." " Perhaps," said Mr. Justice Manic, "he was looking for a Fitzroy !" On Thursday, in the Exchequer, in the midst of a learned argument upon the construction of an act of Parliament, in which the pronoun " he" occurred, the learned Chief Baron observed, "It has been the course of modern legislation to enact that the word he may be read she." " Precisely so." added Mr. Baron Alderson, " and the singular may be read fur We. plural; ergo, tone man may be taken to mean three Konen r