The Press. — London, England, 1858-10-30 00:00:00

tt Ajo fritls No 287.—V0L. VI. Ely V rtss. LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1858. A SPEECH BY JOHN BRIGIIT, M.P. IT was scarcely' possible but that the Speech which it had been announced Mr. BRIGHT would make on Wednesday last should be looked for ward to with unusual and exceptional interest throughout the kingdom. Till that day, since three years ago, when that powerful frame was weak ened with disease, and that strong strident voice was reduced to a whisper, Mr. BRIGHT had not been equal to the exertion of addressing his fellow-citizens from a public platform. A manifesto of policy was accordingly looked for and eagerly expected. Great preparations were made for its reception and diffusion, and both special trains and telegraphic wires were engaged by our daily contemporaries to secure to their readers the earliest possible communication of Mr. BRIGHT'S political views. As is not unusual in such cases, anticipation has not been satisfied by the reality ; and Mr. BRIGHT has fallen short of the mark which the public had set up for him. Not, we think, from want of strength—for his language is as vigorous, and his mind appears as ingenious and full of re source as ever—but front fundamental difficulties of situation. Mr. 13amirr, at Birmingham, in October, 1858, was something in the position of a photographer attempting to produce a picture upon paper not properly prepared. Neither the mind of the citizens of Birmingham, nor the spirit of th e coun t ry , i s i n that state which renders it susceptible to Mr. BRIGHT 'S process, and the result has been an impression blurred and indistinct, and, as far as Mr. Buicarr s im mediate objects are concerned, unavailable. The member for Birmingham is too practised a handler of large assemblies not to have discerned this, and accordingly his Speech throughout bears the strongest marks of his perception of the difficulty under which he was labouring, and of his efforts to get over it. He regretted that there was no French Revolution to heat the minds of the population, and make them malle able under the artistic touch of the practical agi tator, and failing that he felt himself compelled to make upon the imagination of his audience a demand as strong as that preferred by Bottom and , his co m p any o f p l ayers to Th eseus an d his Court. He begged them to see things, not as they are, but as it would suit the promotion of his views that they should be. He tried hard to rouse them with o b serva ti ons uponthe jaded question of Corn-laws ; he begged them to repre sent to themselves that Lord DERBY'S great object in 185'2 was their re-establishment, and that he was ejected from office for having rashly made the attempt ; h e assure d t h em t h a t ware a re invariably forced by a dominant aristocracy upon liesle grossly misrepresented by their Par ; and he entreats them to believe that the 'eers of England in 1858 are as much as iossible the same in soc i a l h a bit s an d political tendencies as the feudal barons of the Norman LATEST EDITION. LONDON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1858. STAMPED ....SIXPENCE. U NS f AMPED ..FIVEPENCE. Mr. BRIGHT took a prominent part. On both those occasions Mr. BRIGHT was with the Aris tocracy, who tried to keep the sword in its sheath, and against the People, who were bent upon drawing it. The Government of Lord ABERDEEN, far from promoting the war with Russia, struggled so long and so earnestly against it, that they actually brought it on by the very extremity of their reluctance. The impulse of the People was, as it generally is, for war, and they had war—the war that Mr. BRIGHT denounces as so bloody, so costly, and so fruitless. We give no opinion upon that war now ;we simply state a fact—a fact material to Mr. BRIGHT'S position. Was it otherwise in the war with China ? Is it not a fact that that war was approved and forced onward with accla mation by the People in opposition to the ex pressed conviction and recorded vote of Parlia liament ? And, again, is it not a fact that, had it not been for the moderation, the tact, and the admi rable spirit exhibited by the Governments and the Sovereigns of England and France, the vio lent momentary impulses of their respective popu lations would have broken up the inestimable alliance of the two countries, and driven them into a war that would have brought disaster and sorrow upon the entire civilized world ? Such would have been the result, beyond question, of the difficulties consequent on the attempt upon the life of the Emperor if the People of England and France had possessed executive power as well as legislative influence. Such equally, too, under similar circumstances, might have been the result of our differences with America, so hap pily and so skilfully arranged by Lord M.ALmEs- BURY. We warn the People of England against these and the like misrepresentations. We say tc them, examine for yourselves; see whether it be true that there is really any great Cause, as Mr. BRIGHT phrases it, any great contest of classes impending, or " any great fabric of privilege to shake to its base." We warn them not to permit Mr. BRIGHT to send them forth in banded Quixotic troops to attack windmills for giants, and flocks of sheep for armies; and to Mr. BRIGHT we would say, with high respect for his talents, and with sincere satisfaction at his recovery, that we pra of him to consider well how he uses that fresh health of body, and renewed vigour of mind, with which it has pleased Goy now to bless him. period. They stand, as did their castles of old, commanding the highway, and barring all pro gress, save on conditions the most vexatious, and by favour of exactions the most oppressive, in which they are backed by that monstrous and adulterous creature the Peer of the Church. Banded together and aided by their abettors, the squires, these despots urge the people in droves to the polling-booths, and contrive to create a Lower House but little better than the Upper, by the aid of which they carry on wars for their own amusement at the expense of the oppressed people whom it is Mr. BRIGHT'S mission to enfranchise. Such is the representation of England in 1858 which Mr. BRIGHT endeavoured to impress upon the minds of the people, and such is the state of things which he tells them they have to sweep away. But does Mr. BRIGHT believe in it, or does he intend himself to adopt the policy which he in dicates and suggests to the People as national ? We think not. The whole thing smacks of the theatrical, and appears to have been conceived as the best means of inducing a condition of the public mind favourable to Mr. BRIGHT'S modes of political action. That, at least, is our reading of this tissue of misrepresentation, to which Mr. BRIGHT adds another, perhaps the greatest mis representation of all, that he wishes "to abide " almost religiously by those ancient landmarks "of our Constitution " which he so vilifies as im pediments to progress. That he has any imme diate intention of attempting their removal we do not believe. Mr. BRIGHT is too astute and sagacious an observer of the popular mind not to be aware that the spirit of the time is against him, and that men and women in whose ears are still ringing the voices of the noblemen and gentlemen of England, who have occu pied the recess of Parliament in discussing anxiously with them the best means of im proving their condition and of fitting them for the beneficial exercise of political trusts, can hardly be expected at a moment's notice to join in a crusade against the institutions which 'have produced and foster the higher classes. Mr. BRIGHT proposes to himself at present, probably, only to sow a wind which at some future time the country may reap in the dimen sions of a whirlwind. It is the manifest spirit and tendency of his speech, rather than its actual language, which we regard as so mischievous, and against which we desire to warn those Conserva tives who have been disposed to regard Mr. BRIGHT as not unwilling to tread the path of moderate and gradual Reform by their side. With his somewhat vague suggestions upon the subject of a Reform Bill we shall deal on a future occasion. We will at the present moment simply confine ourselves to directing attention to the fact that in his shadowy scheme Mr. BRIGHT starts from the fundamental fallacy that discussion and argument have no force within the walls of Parliament, but that every result is arrived at by sheer numerical voting. Of his history of wars and their origin we can only say that it will as little stand examination as his account of taxation and its incidence. The latter is a question too extensive to deal with incidentally. It requires so much argu ment and so much statistical statement tho roughly to put it truly before the public. But the origin of the wars in which we hav e been last engaged admits of being more summarily dis posed of. The war with Russia and that with China were those in the discussion upon which CAMBRIDGE, AND THE ROYAL COMMISSIONERS. THE scene in the Arts School, Cambridge, on Tuesday last, was such as probably no one has witnessed since the memorable occasion in 1724, when the Senate met to obey the peremptory mandamus of the Court of King's Bench to restore Dr. BENTLEY to his degrees. The pro ceedings on the feeling larger numL BENTLEY met ference as un cedent prove future good. prevailed, and present, sho• great important regarded as hitherto worked [Wan A SUPPLEMENT, GRATIS. i Tuesday were less uproarious, but that prevailed was not I,ss-ticep. A e r , .--. fiber by 100 than tlisit i -„i11g,,v,•-. - ' - r net to protest apt' .. ( 1 'r .46 . 5.... . ,fi '•,• ~,... unjustifiable in • • ..1 •.. ~,,• ~,,.. st" . NPR ‘,/, vocations, as it is tft4ii • Ilw ,'I - . it-% wie t-d I. The earnest tort- „1,, i , ...,,, „ . , 4 Ind the determinedao , i i i - owed how complete:lm i tior -Twit I. 3 1 ! -......2% PI • . ,..., t•tance of the issue. .I *t W s most unfortunate tha , orked so well with the '11". IA