The Press. — London, England, 1858-05-29 00:00:00

-- Government, on the model of that Government which the cabal admire ; and whenever the spirit of the country is interested in those improvements which the spirit of the age demands —whether they be social, or financial, or con stitutional —and the settlement of which is the first duty and the most pressing task " f a real statesman, then you will have your attention distracted from this Conservative pro gress by incomprehensible wars carried on in thstoitt pats, com menced for no earthly purpose, anti terminating in the waste of your resources, and, perhaps, of your repu tation. (Loud cheers.) Well, then, you have to choose between our policy and the policy of the csbal—( Hear,hear) —and I sin here to-day to ask the people of the county of Buckingham, and to ask the people of England, will you s upport her Majesty's Government against the cabal? (Loud cheers, and cries of "We will !") Well, gentle. w en, so deluded was the cabal, so implicitly did they be. lieve their own leading articles written by themselves— (laughter)—so entirely did they credit the statement that the people of Englund are against those who, in a moment of constitutional difficulty, at her Majesty's twice. expressed wish, came forward to assist her, that thinking that the opportunity was ripe, having, as they imagined, a packed House of Commons—( Hear,hear)—and having every advantage in their favour, they brought for ward a vote of censure upon a Ministry which in three months had i ffeeted those great results to which I have al. hided. (Cries of " Shame !" and cheers.) Well, gentle men. the moment notice was given of that motion it was considered among shortsighted hangers-on in politics that our doom was sealed as certainly as is that of a man who has been committed and sentenced, and is only waiting for the arrival of Mr. Calcraft. (Laughter.) All those wise and experienced politicians thought that the game was up, ( A laugh.) They knew, according to their own fancies, that »n one would look into the merits of the question, and nobody would then remember what we had done or consider what we might do. It was in their minds a mere sum in political arithmetic—( a laugh which the merest novice in politics could reticulate and fix in an instant. There were a greater number of members of the House of Commons at the service of the • cabal. The signal was given by the leader. There were solemn and pious tools always at tile service of the cabal —(laughter)-- and the thing was to be done off hand. (Renewed langl ter.) Well, gentlemen, they fixed upon an Indian subject, from which they stole their tactic-t— -(loud laughter)—and which revealed their views. They were, in tact, resolved to loot the Treasury. ( Roars of laughter.) There is nothing in my recollection of politics —which, (living to your continual confidence in me, extends to a period of no very short duration, for I believe it was on this very spot and in the presence of many of those now assembled hero that I male my first speech in public life long before I had the honour of being a member of the House of Commons—there is nothing, I say, in my political experience of any scheme more azientifically managed than that one by which it was hoped to accom plish the fall of the Government. (Hear, hear.) A gentleman in the House of Commons brought forward ,he motion, and he was a man of unimpeachable character. The cabal, which had itself rather a tainted character— (cheers)— chose its instruments with pharisaical accuracy. (Renewed cheering and laughter.) I can assure you that when the right hon. gentleman who brought forward the motion in the House of Commons rose to impeach me I was terrified at my own shortcomings, and I listened attentively to a nisi-prius narrative, ending with a resolu tio.i, which I think must have been drawn up by a sonveyancer. (Hear, hear.) In the other House of Parliament a still greater reputation condescended to appear upon the human stage—(loud laughter and cheers )—Gamsliel himself, with the broad phylacteries of faction upon his forehead—(renewed cheers and laughter) —he called upon God to witness, in the voice and accents of majestic adoration, that he was not as other men were— ( loud cheers and laughter)—for that he was never in fluenced by party motives. ( Renewed cheers and laugh ter.) Well, gentlemen, what happened under these circumstances? Why something, which I am quite sure is unprecedented in the parliamentary history of England. When se hear of faction, when we hear of the arts and manoeuvres of party, when we read sometimes that party spirit will he the ruin of this country, let us tike a calm review of the affairs of the last fortnight ; and I think we must come to the conclusion that in a country free and en lightened as in England there are limits to party feeling which the most dexterous managers of the passions of man kind cannot ever pass—( Hear, hear)—and that in the great bulk of those who sit in Parliament and in the great bulk of the people of England there is a genuine spirit of patriotism which will always eventually triumph. (Cheers.) That such is the case may be seen from the late debate. A motion was brought forwawl abotit a fortnight ago by a right hou. gentleman who sits for the city of Oxford which was to terminate the existence of the Government, and diming the debate which ensued, protracted as it was, you may, perhaps, have observed that the Government very reluctantly ad. 'kneed to take part in it, although, being as we were upon our trial, we were prepared, if necessary, to defend our con duct on every point, and to vindicate with a becoming spirit uur deeds, our duty, and our position. ( Hear, hear.) But instead of that, here was a bill of indictment preferred against the Government, which commenced as a vote of censure, and which upon the last night of the debate was expanded into a general vote of want of confidence. Now, who conducted that debate in defence of the Government and in opposition to the motion ? Why, not members of the Government, hut independent members of the House of Commons—( Hear, henr)—some of them gentlemen of great eloquence and authority not connected with the Government in politics, but, on the contrary, not professing those general principles which form the basis Of Our policy. They yet saw through the flimsy web, and despised the authors of so perfidious and pernicious debate movement. (Cheers.) We, gentlemen, refer to that 'euate with confidence and triumph that we can fairly ask for a verdict at the hands of the people of this THE PRESS, MAY 29, 1858. country. (Hear, hear.) In point of fact, that verdict has been already given. (Hear.) Until that vote of censure was brought forward we were receiving from the people of England a fur and unimpassioned trial. We were ac cepted as a Government which, having taken office under such difficult circumstances as I have described, and after the peculiar exercise of the prerogative of the Crown, was deserviog of a fair chance, and we were having a kindly trial. Ido not believe that the great body of the people of this country had any feeling but one, and that was a general feeling for those who had acceded to office under great difficulties, and who hpt sedulously and with devotion endeavoured to perform their duty. (Hear, hear.) The moment, however, that this motion was brought forward and introduced in the speei.ii which was made upon that occasion by the right hon. member for Oxford—from the moment that the debate took place, the enlightened and indignant mind of the people of England declared at the moment, and in a manner which could not be mistaken, what. its sense was of the conduct of certain public cha racters in those transactions; and if we had gone upon the hustings—which there is very little doubts e should have done before we should have fallen—l believe that the overthrow of the cabal would have been one of the most signal in history. (Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") Now, this danger had been overcome by no unworthy manage. ment or concession on our part. (Hear, hear.) It has been overcome, not by the united efforts of friends in a division, hut, upon the contrary, it has been overcome by the intrinsic and in:ernal sense of wrongdoing which pre vailed in the ranks of our enemies. (Loud cheers.) There is nothing like that last Friday evening in the his. tory of the House of Comnisns. (Renewed cheers.) We came down to the house expecting to divide at four o'clock in the morning —I myself, with my armour buckled on, prepared to deliver an address two hours after midnight — and I believe ►hat, even with the consciousness of a good cause, that is no mesa effort. (Hear.) Well. gentlemen, we were all assembled, our benches with their serried ranks seemed to rival those of our proud opponents, when suddenly there arose a wail of distress—(laughter) —but not from us. (Renewed laughter.) I can only liken the scene to the mutiny of the Bengal army. ( Laughter.) Regiment after regiment, corps after corps, general after general, all acknowledged that they could not march through Coventry with her Majesty's Opposition. ( Roars of laughter. It was like a convulsion of nature rather than any ordinary transaction of human life. ( Laughter.) I can only liken it to one of those earth quakes which take place in Calabria or Peru. (Laughter.) There was a rumbling murmur—(laughter)—ii groan— ( laughterl—a shriek, a sound of distant thunder. No one knew whether it came from the top or the bottom of the house. (Laughter.) There was a rent, a fissure in the ground, And then a village disappeared--(laughter)— then a tall tower toppled down, and the whole of the Op position benches became one great dissolving view of anarchy. (Loud cheers ar,d laughter.) Are these the people whom you want to govern the country—(" No, no ") people in whose camp there is anarchy—( Hear, hear) — between whom there is discord on every point, and who are not even united by the common bond of wishing to seize upon the spoils of office? (Cheers and laughter 1 What we have done I have, 1 hope, placed before you with no undue arrogance—(Hear, hear)—but what they intend to do no one has had the audacity to intimate. ( Hear, hear.) They say that we have no policy when we are building up an empire, and yet they shrank from giving any opinion upon the document which was the subject of nights of protracted discussions. ( Hear, hear.) Under these circuinstartces my meeting you here today, having, as I before stet -d, accepted the invitation as a private member of Parliament, and not as a member of a Government, is to me a source of great congratulation, for it gives me an opportunity after these remarkable occurrences of ad dressing a large body of my countrymen connected with me by close and ancient ties cf public confidence and private friendship, and of giving them an account of my stewardship as a Minister for three months. ( Hear, hear.) I again ask you, then, and I ask the people of this country, —" Will you stand by the Queen's Ministers against a cabal ?" (" Hear, hear," and " Yes, yes.") If the country decides to stand by us, and to extend to us permanently that generous confidence, instead of tiat which perhaps has temporarily arisen from a sense of the injustice which we have experienced, we shall endeavour, with all the means at our command, to retain that confidence by intro acing such measures as in cur opinion are demanded by the necessities of the State, and our study will he constantly to promote the welfare of the people of this country. (Hear, hear.) With regard to our foreign rela tions, we shall still pursue that determined, but yet prudent and conciliatory system which, while it will in our opinions maintain peace, will cio so w'th honour. ( Hear, hear.) We shall endeavour in the management of our finances to reduce taxation, while at the same tune our measures will duly respect the maintenance of public credit. ( Hear, hear.) We shall pursue in India that policy with which I believe the late debate has made you familiar, because we believe that it is the only polic: by which we can retain that empire, and we ought to wish to retan it by con• sidering the happiness of those 180,1100,000 of persons who have in spirit long been subjects of the Queen, and who now by the literal letter of the law will owe her an un divided allegiance. ( Hear, hear.) NVe shall endeavour to obtain and to retain that confidence by temperately ad dressing ourselves to the solution of all those difficult questions which have too long agitated and disunited the commonve-alth in which we live. We hope by the measures which we shall bring forward, whether relating to legal reform—and upon that head our measure is prepared—or to social reform, which demand the at tention of any Minister, or whether relating to those constitutional improvements which all wise men who are lovers of their country would wish to see effected in such a manner that they should be improvements and not mere changes—( Hear, hear)—whatever may be the character of those measures, we will not shrink from 523 bringing forward such as we shall conceive to be the best adapted for the solution of the difficulty. But, gentlemen, we shall not be able to do so unless we are supported by the confidence and good feeling of the people of England. ( Hear, hear ) We have been honoured by the confidence of the Crown in a manner not merely formal, and we have accepted the responsibility of office at a great emergency, and after the deliberate expression of opinion on the part of our gracious sovereign that our acceptance or office was public duty trout which we could nut shrink. (Hear, hear., Having employed the brief penoil during which we have been a Government in managing public affairs in the manner I have indicated, I think that we have a right to appeal to the public and to the country generally to sanc tion the selection of her Majesty and to support us by the influence of public opinion. (Hear, hear.) To that opinion, after the late stirring scenes in the House of Commons, upon the part of myself and my colleagues I appeal with diffidence, and yet at the same time with confidence— with diffidence beeau,e 1 know that the present difficulties may require for their solution powers greater than those which we possess ; but with confidence, because 1 Lave the greatest reliance ou tie generosity and justice of the people of England. The right hon. gentleman resumed his seat amid loud and long-protracted cheering, waving of hats and handkerchiefs, and other manifestations of sympathy. The health of the Chairman was proposed by the Duke of Buckingham, and re4porled to; and, sonic other toasts having been given, the party separated about nine o'clock. A gout anb laspan. The thirty-ninth anniversary of her Majesty the Queen's birthday was celebrated at NVindsor on Mon day with the customary honours observed on this auspicious event. Early in the morning the bells of the Chapel Royal of St. George and St. John's Church rang out merry peals, which were continued during the day. At noon, Pond, the Queen's bom bardier, tired a royal salute in the Lung walk. At the same time a royal salute was fired from Fort Belvidere, and answered by the Adelaide frigate on Virginia NVater. Some of the royal tradespeople decked the fronts of their houses with banuerti, and in the evening a dinner took place at the White Hart Hotel ; Mr. Cantrell, the mayor, took the chair, and in most loyal and appropriate terms introduced the healths of her Majesty, the Prince Consort, and other members of the Royal Family. The firing of a feu de joie by the troops in garrison took place on the 15th inst., the day on which her Majesty's birthday was celebrated in town arid other places. The visit of her Majesty, the Prince G.nsort, and the Prince of Wales to Birmingham, for the purpose of opening the ancient park of Aston as a public pro menade and recreation ground, is now definitely fixed for the lath June, and preparations are in progress for giving the Royal party a magnificent and enthu. siastie reception. Tine Queen will arrive by tbe London and North-Weitt rn Railway at Coventry on the afternoon of Monday, the I , lth, when an address of welcome will be presented by the Mayor and Cor poration of that town at the station. Flom thence her Majesty will proceed by rail to Sioneleigh Abbey, the seat of Lord Leigh, the Lord Lieutenant of War wickshire, where she will spend the night. The following morning the Royal party will travel by railway to Birmingham, where they will arrive at the New street station about eleven o'clock. Here they will be met by the Mayor and Town Clerk, and to conducted by them in procession along Queen-stret t, a portion of New-street, High-street, Bull sire. t, Monmouth-street, Colmore-row, and Ann-street, io the Town-hall. This splendid edifice will be taste fully decorated, exterior and interior, for the occa sion ; the Corporation having voted 3,0001. to defray the necessary outlay. Here an address will be pre sented from the Mayor and Corporation of Binning ham, and after a short performance of music tl e pr cession will be re-formed and greatly extended, and proceed along New•street, High-street, Dale-em', Stafford-street, Aston-street, Gosta-green, and the Aston-road, to the hall, in which rooms are being elegantly furnished for the recepticn of her Majesty and suite. Here they will he entertained at luncheon, and at its conclusion her Majesty, elevated upon the garden tt rrace, which commands a noble view of the picturesque grounds which surround the hall, will formally inaugurate the park. No efforts or expense have, or will be, spared to give eclat to the proceed logs. Committees have been formed in every street through which the royal cortege will pass to appn - priately decorate the entire line—galleries of im mense dimensions are in coure of construction in all directions; windows, from which a good view may be obtained, are bringing exorbitant prices ; and the town, there is every reason to believe, will be thronged by thousands of persons from Staffordshire and all parts of the adjacent country. It is not yet positively settled from what station her Majesty will _ _ return, but it is believed that she will - the Aston station, and thence along the North• Western direot to Kenilworth, :r majemy wia 1 proceed from le London and , the nearest