Star. — London, England, 1814-01-15 00:00:00

O,CONING's SPERCII re or ELECTORS OF LivEltpoott, s ot fay last, this highly accomplished Orator and .iened Statesman was entertained by his Con e' at the Liverpool Arens, Liverpool, with a lost sumptuous festival. His i Speech upon the wea r.% vas one of the most brilliant which 'ever fell b' lir. We give it at fall length—to curtail fro - . be to mar it—every passage in it is equally, sou l 0 04_ . ' : • onhis health being alrank, Mr. CANNING rose and , m essed himself as follo ws : • GENTLEMEN —As your guest, I thank you from in v Art f o r dr honourable and affectionate reception T l 0 ; c il you have given me. As the representative of t erpo nl, lam most happy in this opportunity of sett i ng my constituents again after a year's experi and a year's separation—a year, ence 0. 1. each o ther, _ _ gie eventful in the annals of . the w orld, . and 'singe within itself such a-series of important two ojans and of stupendous changes, as might . bye filled the history of an age. Gentlethen—ln the sentiment which has been ' totp l e d with my name, you are so good as to express youracknowledgments for the-attention which I have. paid to business and to the interests of your your I _ You, Gentlemen, have no doubt, recollect town. the terms Upon which I entered into your service ; and you are aware, therefore, that I claim no parti. COW acknowledgment at your hands for attention to' e interests of Liverpool, so far as they are hiapli owl sOth the general interests of the country. I tine at the same time that, collectively and indivi dually, I have not been wanting to all or to any of y ou , in matters of local or individual concern. But I ,!could not do fairly by you if I were not to take this opportuity of saying, that a service (certainly I not pretend to say without difficulty, or without burden in itself) has been made light to me !se ri{ all exaMple, by that institution which. your itrificeace - ..ud provident care has established—l that office ?fs London, through which your cor iiidelice with your Members is now carried on. I bid no pretention to stipulate for this singular k of attention, and neither will it, I hope, be oug ht presuroptuoas in me to say that it might tore been impossible for me to discharge the service Lich I owe you in a way which would have satis ,.. every man' s feelings; that I might, in spite of my endeavours, have given offence in some in ice, by unintentional delay or omission; it I .had been provided with some such medium of coin. unication between us. Ot an individual, absent id meritorious, it is as pleasinic as it is just to speak ell: and I rhould not do justice to the gentleman bon you have appointed to conduct, the office in iuestion (with whom I had no previous actittaint. ace), if I were not to bear public testimony to his ,erit ; and to assure you that it would be difficult. find any one wno would surpass him in zeal, in. aid industry. "Having dispatched what it was necessary for me' to say on points of local interest, I know,Gentlemen, that it is your wish, and T . feel it to be my duty, that I should now proceed to communicate to yon' my sen timents to the state of public affairs, with the same frankness which has hitherto distinguished all our ui tercourse with each other. Gentlemen, that duty is one which it does not now require any effort of cou rage to perform. To exhort to sacrifices, to stimulate to exertion, to shame despondency, to divert from untimely concession, is a duty of a sterner sort, which you found me not backward to discharge, at a period when, from the short period of our acquaintance, 1 was uncertain whether my freedom might not offend you. My task of to-dap is one at which no man can take offence. It is to mingle my congratulations with your rejoicings on the events which have passed lam passing in the world. • " Gentlemen, if in contemplating events so widely (Iliad almost said so tremendously) important, it were possible and pardonable to turn one's view for a moment to considerations merely local- or indivi dual, 1 should say, that, while to Great Britain, while to all Europe, while to the world and to pos terity the events which have recently taken place are matter of joy and ctingratulasion, there is perhaps no collccOn of individuals who are more entitled than the company now assembled in - this room, in great pin I presume identically the same, and altogether reprisenting the same interests and feelings, as that orivitieh I took leave in this room about fourteen months ago, to exult in those events and to derive ham them,. in addition to their share of the general loyoa special and selfish satisfaction. "'We Cannot forget, Gentlemen, the appalling omens, and the awful predictions under which I se parated froth you at that time. I oemember that I was.tahoht to believe that when I returned to renew my actluaintance with my constituents I should find the grass growing in your streets. Probably you must recollect that the penalty denounced upon you for your election of me was -famine to the poor ;and difficulties to the rich. In spite of that warning you did me.the honour to elect me ; in spite of the other warning I.ventured to meet. you here again. Ido not patriot that my election, as was intimated at the time, has' arrested the bounty of PROVIDENcu and turned back the course of the seasons. On the other ' hand, it is fair to admit, that this is not the season of the year at which it would be possible for me to esti ma_ to correctly the amount o f su pe r fluous and uapro fitahle vegetation with winch your streets may be 'fuming. But without presuming to limit the energy ti productive nature, of this at least one may rest satisfied, that t h e fields . have not been starved to 011.1 e your quays with verdure ; that it is not by t(;onomizing in the -0“11611111511 of the harvest that tmture has reserved • her vigour for the pastures of your Exchange. " But, Gentlemen, I am sure you feel with me that these are topics which I treat with levity, only be ta. use they are not, nor were at the ti th e when they were seriously urged, capable of a serious argument they did not furnish grounds tin which any man 'mold rest his appeal to your favour, sit on whish your choice of an y man cou ld b e justi fied. If I bait condescended to revers to them at all it is because I would leave no ne o f t h aw reco ll ect i ons untouc h e d Which the comparison of . our lost me" . 8 with the present I know suggests to your minds as well as to I own—and because I would, as far as its melies, e namour to banish from all future use by exposing their absurdity, topes which art calculated only to mislead and to inflame. • • . .. • 66 That the seasons would have 'course, that the sun would have Shone, and the showers have fallen as favourably, if you had not chosen me for your te presentative, is an admission which I make without much apprehension of the consequences. Nor do I wish you to believe that your choice of any other than me would have delayed the retorn of your prosperity or prevented the revival of your commerce. " I make these admissions, Gentlemen, seithintt fear, so far as concerns the choice beteteen individuals. But I do not equally admit the same indifference as to the principles upon which that election turned. 1 do'not admit that if the principles which it was then recommended to you to countenance, had unfortu nately prevailed in Parliament, and through the au thority of Parliament had been introducel into the counsels of the country, they would not have inter fered with fatal operation, not indeed to check the course of nature, and blast the fertility of the earth : but to stop that current of political events, which, taken at the flood, has placed England at the head 1 of the world. —(49finlause.) 66 Gentlemen, RI had met you here again in the same doubtfulitate of public affairs in which we took leave of of each other, if the forces of confederated nations had still been arrayed in nearly equal divi sion, and the balance of Europe still trembling in the scale, I should not hesitate now, as I did not hesitate then, to state my distinct and unalterable opinion, that perseverance, under whatever difficulties. under, whatever privations, afforded the only chance of pros perity to you, because the only chance of deliverance to Europe—( No/awe.) - a Gentlemen, I should be ashaeled to address yon now in the tone of exultation, if I had not addressed you then in that of encouragement under distress.— I should be ashamed to appear before you, shouting in the train of success, if I had not looked you in the face and exhorted you to patience under difficulties. (W/awe.) It is because my acquaintance with you commenced in times of danger and embarrassment. and because I then neither flattered nor deceived you, that I now not only offer to you my congratulations, but put in my claim to yours on the cessation of that danger, on the termination of that embarrassment, and on the glorious issue to which exertion and endurance have brought that great struggle in which our honour and our happiness were involved —( Great ap(lause.) " Gentlemen, during the course of a political life nearly co-eval with the commencement of this war, I have never uttered one sentiment, I have never given one vote, that had . not for its object the consumma tion which is now happily within our view. lam not ashamed, and it is not unpleasiiig or unprofitable to look back upon the perils which we have passed, and to compare them with the result before us. And Gentlemen, what is that result ? We see a country inferior in population to most of her Continental neighbours, but multiplying her energies and re sources by her own activity, enterprize, and intelli gence, by the vigour of her constitution, and by the good sense of her people, we see her standing up -against a formidable foe, throughout a contest in the course of which every one of her allies, and at times all of them together, have fainted and failed— nay, have been driven to combine with her enemy against her--we see her at this moment rallying the nations of Europe to one point, and leading them to . 'decisive victory—( Rapturous applause.) 66 If this picture were merely in the contemplation of speculative philosophy, if were present to us in the page of the history of ancient times, it would warm the heart. But, Gentlemen, this country is our own ; and what must be the feelings which arise on such an occasion in the bosom of every son of that country ? what must be the feelings of a community, such as I am now addressing, which constitutes no insignificant part of the strength of the nation so des cribed ? what (I may be permitted to add) the feel ing of one who is chosen to represent that commu nity, and who finds himself in that station maim mo ment of triumph, only because he discountenanced despair in the moment of despondency ? 66 Gentlemen, in the view of a subject so mighty and magnificent as this, I should disdain to be turned aside to partial oil individual considerations. It was impossible, however, not to say something of princi ples, because our triumphs would be incomplete, and its blessings might be transitory, if we could 'be led astray by any sophistry, or could consent in a sort of compromise of common joy to forget, or to mistate the causes by which that triumph has been produced. All of one mind, I trust and believe we are in exult ing at the success of our country ; all of one mind, I ti ust we now are throughout this land, in determining to persevere, if need be, in s:renqous exertions to complete, and I hope to perlect, the great work so happily in progress. But we know that there are some of those who share most heartily in the public exultation, who yet in tenderness for disappointed prophecies, endeavour to disconnect effect and cause, in a manner which I humbly think erroneous—and it is an error which I also think might be dangerous, if unwarily adopted, and generally received. 66 We have heard, for instance, that the war has at length been successful, beiause the principles on which the war was undertaken had been changed ; that we are at length blessed with victory because we have thrown away the banner under which we com menced the contest ; that the contest was commen ced with one set of principles, that the issue has been happily brought about by the adoption of another. Gentlemen, I know of no such change. If we have succeeded, it has not been by the_aban.donment, but by the prosecution of our principles; if we have suc ceeded, it has not been by adopting new maxims of policy, but by upholding, under all varieties of diffi culty and disceurazement—old established, inviola ble principles of conduct. We are told, now forsooth, that this war has become a war of the people ; and that therefore, by the operation of that change alone, the power of imperial France has been baffled and overcome. Nations, it is said, have at length joined their sovereigns in a contest which heretofore had been a contest of sovereigns only. Gentlemen, the fact of the change might be admitted without there fore admitting the argument. It does not follow that the people were not at all times equally interested in the war, (as those who think as I do, have always contended that they Were,) because it may be and' must be admitted that the people, in many countries, were for a time deluded. Otir antagonists say, that jarring interests have been reconciled. We say that gross delusions have been removed. We both admit the fact that sovere l iges WI their people at ident;fiad But they who say that this has been effectrd by , change of, principles, let them specify the *badge. What change has taken plate atnong the nations of Europe ?We are the best Judges of ourselves what change has taken place here ? Ts the constitution other than it was when we were told, as we often were in. the bad times, that it was a doubt if it was worth_ de fending ? Is the eonstitutior other than it was when it was supposed that peace OR any terms mast be' made as the only hope of saving if from popular in dignation and popular reform ? 44 Gentlemen, there is another question to be ask ed; By what power, in what part of the world has that final blow been struck which has smitten the ty- , rant to the ground? I suppose, by some enlightened republic, I suppose by some nation which, in the ex cess of popular freedom, considers even a representa tive system as defective, unless each individual inter feres directly in the government of the national ton cerns. I suppose by some nation of enlightened pa triots, eves) , man of whom is a politician in the coffee house as well as in the senate. I suppose it is from some such government as this that the conqueror of despots, the enemy of monarchial England has met his doom. I look through the European worhi, Gen tlemen, in vain ; I find there no such government ; but in another hemisphere I do find such a one, which no doubt must be the political David by whom the Goliah of Europe has been brought down. What is Ibinanse of that glorious republic to which the gri tinkle of Europe is eternally due; which from its ha tred to tyranny, has so perseveringly exerted itself to liberate the world, and at last has.successfolly closed the contest ? Alas 1 Gentlemen, such a republic I do indeed find, but I find it enlisteci.. and God be thank ed, enlisted alone, under the banners of the despot.—, (Apple:um) But where was the blow struck f Where ?- Alas, for theory ! The bldw was given in the wilds of despotic Russia. It was followed up on the plains of Leipsig—by Russian, Prussian, and Austrian arms. But let me not be mistaken. Do I therefore argue, —do I therefore give it to our antagonists the advan cage of arguing — : that an absolute monarchy is bet ter than a free government ? God forbid ! What 1 mean is this—that in appreciating the comparative excellence of political institutions it is idle—it is mere pedantry— to overlook the feelings of nature. " The order of nature could not subsist among mankind if there were not an instinctive patriotisin ; a love of national independence, I do not gay uncon nected with, but prior and paramount to the desire of politicalatmeliorAtion.. It may be very wrong that this should be so. I cannot help it. Our business is with the fast. And surely i( is not to be regretted That tyrants and conquerors should have learned from experience, that the first consideration suggested to the inhabitants of any country by a foreign invasion, is not whether the political constitution of the state is perfect, but wLether Ike altar, at which he has wor shipped, and the home .in which he has dwelt from. his infancl, whether his wife and. his chilciren,.whe, they the tombs of his forefathers, whether the palace, of the sovereign under whom he area bolt, ana;t!„.+' whorit'hi may owe, or fancy that he owes allegiance, —should be abandoned to. Isolence and profalus-• tion ? • • - • That in the infancy of the French Revolution. maay.:saliow►.Au. Europe were..onfurtunately led. to belie :e* and to act upon a different persuasion, is un doubtedly true ;—that whole countries were over-run by reforming conquerors, and -flattered themselves with being proscilytes till they found themielves vic tims. Even in this coutittry, as I have already said, there have been times when wetave been called upon to consider whether there was not something at home which must be mended b. tore we could hope to re pel a foreign invader with success. " Gentlemen, it is happy for the world that this sort of question should have been tried, if I may so say, to a disadvantage; that it should have been tried in countries where no man in hii senses will say that the frame of political society is such, as according to the most moderate principles of regulated freedom it ought to be, where I will venturd to say, without ha zarding the imputation of being myself a visionary reformer, political society is not •such, as after the success of this war and from the happy contagion of the example of Great Britain, it is sure gradually to become. It is happy for the world that this question as to the value of national independence should thus have been tried on its own merits; that after twenty years of controversy we should be authorised by un doubted results to revert to truth and nature, and to disentangle the genuine feelings of the heart from the obstructions which a generalizing philosophy had wound around them. " One of the most delightful poets of this country, in describing the differences of soil and climate and the various proportions of natural blessings and ad vantages dispensed by PROVIDENCE ,to the various na tions of Europe, turns from the beautiful vallies and cloudless skies of Italy to the rugged mountains of Switzerland, and inquires whether there also in those severe and unkindly regions the patriot passion is found equally to prevail, he decides the question truly in the affirmative, and he says of the inhabitants Uf those hard climes : " Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms, And dear that hill which lifts him to the storms ; And as a child, whorl scaring sounds molest, Clings close and closer to the mother's breast, So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar, But bind hint to his native mountalnii more!" " What Goldsmith has thus beautifully applied to the physical varieties and disadvantages of a country has been found to be not less true with respect to po. litical institutions. The sober desire of improvement, the rational endeavour to redress wrong or correct imperfection in the political frame of a Government, are not only natural but laudable in man : but it is well that it should have been shewn by irrefragable proof that these sentiments, where they exist, super sede not that' devotion to native soil which is the foundation of national independence. And it is right that it should be understood and remembered that this sentiment of national • independence alone:— aroused where it had slumbered—enlightened where it had been deluded—and kindled into enthusiasm by the insults and provocations of the enemy, has been found sufficient, without internal changes, or com promises, of sovereigns and Governments with their people, without relaxations. of allegiance' or abjura. tions of authority, to connect the nations of the Con tinent in one common cause, to lead them against by which persuade man. kind, that it Milli - to some cans be a question whb. tber to iciatiesee under. the infliction of foreign - do. *nicht Might not be preferable td the v.indicating.im perfect institutions against it: 'that sophistry, X trust. is laid at lest for our time. Another topic more pe culiar tt . )talt men Country has at times been interposed to discourage the prosecution of the War, and draws the inme..attention, as many well Meaning Persons have been occasionally ranked among its supporters. That, th is country alone was sufficient to its own. de tenee,shfiicient to its own happiness,—siafficient to its own independence, and that the complicated corn-, binations of. Continental policy were always hazard ous to our interests, as well as hurthensome to our means, has been at several periods of this war a favourite doctrine not only with those who for other reasons wished to obstruct the conduct of the war, and to embarrass the measures of the Government, but with men of the most enlightened minds, of the most benevolent views,- and the most unsuseeeted de votion to the interests and constitution of their country. 46 Can any man now look back upon thi s trial • which we have gone through and point oat any Terioti during the last twenty years in which the plan of itti sulated policy could have been adopted without, in the event, at this day having prostrated England at the foot of a conqueror ? Great, indeed, has been the • call upon °et exertions ; great, indeed , has been the drain. upon our treasures ; long and wearisome has the struggle been, and late is the moment at which peace .is brought • within our reach ; but even though the difficulties may have been enhanced, and its dulation protracted by it, yet is there any than who seriously doubts whether the having associated our destinies with the destinies of other nations, or not that, which, under the blessing of Peavmexca, has eventually se cured the safety of all ? It is at the Moment when. old) a trial has come to its Issue that it is fair to ask of those who have suffered under the pressure of pro tracted exertion, (and of whom, rather than of those - whom I now address e -efor by whom have such pri vations been felt more sensibly ?) it is now, I says the ' time to ask, whether upon a review of the whole contest any man can point out the period at which such a peace could have -been made, as 'should at once have guarded the national interests, and corres porid;:d 'with the national character ? I am addressing myself now to those, and to those only,' who think the character of a ..nation an essential part of ifs strength, and consequently of its safety. " Is it when the Continent was at peace; when, looking upon the Map of Eutope, you saw but one mighty and connected system—one great hiniinary, with 'a number of attendant satellites circulating aroued him; was it at that .period that England cpultihave m ide peace, and have remained at peace for a tweltemonth ?—What is the answer ? Why * that 'the experiment was tried. The resnit was; the renewal of the war.' Was it' at a later 'period when . the Continental System_ had been established, when tivo:thirds -of .the.ports of the Continent were shut against you—when but one link, as it were, was want , stag to bind that Continent in a circling Chain of iron, mrimOshoula eicte4 youArean intercourse. With the other nations of-Europe At that moment peace was most earnestly recommeinled toyou— at that moment, Gentlemen, I first came among you—at that mo ment I ventured to recommend to you persever ance, passive perseverance; and to expie,s. Lope, that by the mere strain of an .unnatural effort the massive bonds forged for your restraint might at no distant period burst asunder. I was heard, Cerra tletften, by you with illtitilgtuce ; I know nut whether with conviction ; but is it now, to be regretted that we did not at that moment 1 ield to the pressure of oar wants or of our fears ? What has been the issue I • The Continental System was completed, with the sole exception of Russia, in the year 181'2. In that' year the pressure upon this country was undoubtedly painful. Had we yielded, the system would have been immortal : we persevered, and before the con clusion of that year the system was at an end ; at an end as all schemes of violence are sure to terminate, not by a mild and gradual decay, such.at Waits upon a regular and well-spent life, but by sudden dissowe tion : at an end, like the breaking -up of a. winter's frost. But yesterday the whole Continent was bound up, as it were, in chaias of ice, and presented to the view one drear expanie of barren uniformit) 1 to-day the breath of HEAVES unbinds the wil—ahe streams begin to flow again, and human intercourse revives. 6. Can we regret that we did not lie down and die under the sufferings of the inclement season ? or did we not more wisely to bear up and to wait the change ? 44 Gentlemen, I have said that I should be asha med, and in truth.l should he so, to use the language of exultation, if • it were . the language of exultation only; but those who .have .suffered great privations have a light to know that they have not suffered them in vain; they have earned a claim not merely to consolation, but to something more. They are justly . ate be compensated for what they have undergone, O lost,. or haxarded,by a contemplation of what they hive gained. We have gained then a rank and au. thority in Europe which for the life of the longest liver of those who now hear me, must place this country upon an eminence which no probable reverses can shake—we have gainest r or rather we have recta• vered, a splendour of military glory which 'places us by the side of the greatest military nations in the world.—Twenty, nay ten years ago, while there was not a British heart that did nit beat with rapture at k the exploits of our navy, there were few who would not have , been content to compromise to that repu• tation alone; to claim the sea as exclusively our pro. vince, and to allow France and the other Continen tal Powers to contend for superiority by land. 46 Let Portugal, now led to the pursuit of her flying conquerors—let liberated Spain—let France herself, 'invaded in her turn by those whom she had overrun or menaced with invasion, attest the ta urophs of the British army, and the equality of her military with her naval fame. • 6 , I do not say that these are considerations with a view to which the contest, it otherwise terminable. ought to have been purposely protracted ; but, I say, that upon the retrospect we have good reason to re joice that the contest was not closed ingloriously .4nd iesecutfely, when the latter events of it have , *ern such as have established our security by our I say ,.we have reason to rejoice, that during The pea . 14 0 4Trants. Sad , to slate tact (may 114 t s Set l s4 ll 4. 4444414144 - 2011110scr• - r " uendtmen, so. moth for the vsPhistty k *as for twenty years attemptto persu , . 1 6