The Sun. — London, England, 1859-08-18 00:00:00

- the world knew that it was agreed that they should resort to the same habit of expenditure ; and it was considered, in fact, a legitimate exercise of their wealth and their power. In the same way, if a contest took place in a borough, it was some lead ing landed proprietor or some influential family of the neighbourhood who contested with another Individual having the same pretensions as himself, and they fought the election of some borough amid 14 or 20 days of saturnalia, extravagance, and cor ruption. There again it was considered so much a matter of course, and it was so ennobled in men's minds by seeing it patronised by the titled and the great, that these things were passed over. We read of them in history, and very little notice was taken of them. (Hear.) But now, gentlemen, we have another class of aspirants for Parliament altogether. During the last general election, for instance, I have seen a new element in our system of electoral corruption; we have had a number of gentlemen who have come over from Australia, where, I suppose, they have been successful at the diggings, for they have brought over their nuggets and administered them in the shape of £5O notes ; they have gone to some little borough and fought their battles and bribed just as their betters did 50 years ago. Now, I have great hopes when this system is resorted to by par ties who have none of the prestige of the nobility, that very likely it will be treated very differently by the people and by Par li ament, and that some plan will be resorted to to put it down. I remem ber when duelling in this country was so regularly a mode of meeting a certain description of insults that if a man holding a certain position in society received an affront at the hands of his equal, he was obliged to meet him in deadly combat as a conse quence, or he would have been banished from the social life of his equals. Well, I remember that some linendrapers' assistants took it into their heads to go down one Sunday morning to Worm wood Scrubs, orsome place where the nobility used and they began to fight to carry on that pastime, duels ; but as soon as linendrapers assistants took to duelling it became very infamous in the eyes of the upper classes. The consequence was that some of those gentry were sent to Newgate, and now nothing would be so ridiculous as to resent an insult by going out and fighting a duel about it. I am very much in hopes that, since this system of bribery and corruption has fallen into the hands of such as I have described, those gentlemen coming home from the Australian diggings, or from their broad acres and herds, and rushing into local mar kets, and offering by the expenditure of £ 4 , 000 or £5,000 to buy the seat of some little dirty borough in the west of England—l have very strong hopes that such a system will not be so fashionable as it has been, and very likely we shall succeed in having those parties prosecuted criminally—l say crimi nally. Let them be indicted criminally, and let the consequence of their conviction be a few months at Newgate, or in the House of Cor rection, and if an ex-M.P. be sent there, and made to wear the prison dress, and have his hair shaved, I have no doubt in the world it would do very much to put an end to this bribery and corruption. (Laughter and cheers.) But now, gentlemen, this is a much wider question. Ido not mean to say that this is the only way in which our electoral system is to be reformed. I shall have something more to say about that to-morrow evening, when I believe I am to meet the whole body of ray consti tuents, to whom will properly belong the greater development of that question ; but this I will say, that I look upon all the present attempts and pre tended measures for putting an end to this system of corruption as insincere on the part of the House of Commons. (Cheers.) There is a rule resorted to where bribery has been proved in certain cases of ordering commissioners to proceed to a town and inquire into these proceedings. Now I will tell you what that amounts to. Your select committees that sit in the House of Conimons proceed to make np a pile of blue-books after every general election, which I once, about five years ago, took the trouble to measure and to weigh : this pile of blue-books was just four feet high, and weighed rather over a cwt., and I will undertake to say that these records of the delinquencies of these boroughs were never read by half-a-dozen people. Another device of the House of Commons is to send out commissioners to inquire into the proeeedings at particular places where they have reason to suppose the corruption is more than usually vile. What does that amount to ? Two or three young barristers are sent down to a city like Gloucester, and there pass a few months in the summer very pleasantly, and hear stories from Tom, Jack, and Harry, and prepare a huge blue-book, and in six or 12 months that is presented to Parliament. The report is more volu minous than the reportwe had before, and if six men read the report of the committee of the House of Commons when the interest in the matter was fresh not three will open the second report when there are other things occupying their attention. The conse quence is that you are put to enormous expense for these commissioners, and no result comes from them, and no result is intended to come from them. I voted myself the other day in Parliament against the issu ing of a commission in the case of Glocester. Nobody will suppose I so voted because I wished to screen that or any other borough from inquiry; but I knew the futility, the utter valuelessness of that inquiry, and therefore would not lend myself to what I knew was the perpetuation of a delusion. (Cheers.) I say, any man who is content to resort to only the existing means of putting down corruption must have larger credulity than I possess. I have no faith in the existing means, and I won't lend myself to a delusion, or practise those means any longer. What you want, besides such a plan as I have spoken of, is, for your Parliament to allow at least the experiment of the ballot. (Loud cheers.) I don't speak of the ballot as a cure for all evils, or as a political mea sure mixed up with other questions of organic change. I speak now of it only as a means of pre venting to a large extent the exercise of this gross corruption, and as a moral instrument to check the growth of that rottenness which is sapping the foundation of our electoral system. (Cheers.) You have all observed, I dare say, in the accounts that have been published of the recent election commit tees, that when there has been a question of bribery, particularly in the smaller borough, the price of the votes has risen just in proportion as the day ad vanced. That while the pall has been going on a vote has been worth probably £5 at 1Q o'clock, £lO at 12 o'clock, £5O at 3 o'clock, £lOO at half-past 3, and in some instances £250 a few minutes before the clock struck four. Again you have seen wherever you have had ruffianism and rowdyism, if I may use an American phrase, that party which we call the " roughs" at an election are called into request. It has been a hustle and a jostle of electors just at the critical time of the polling, when, probably, the scale might be turned by the forced absence of one of the electors. We saw a trial the other day of a gallant admiral who tried to record his vote in a borough in the West of England ; but he was seized by the roughs, who not knowing that he was a valuable servant of the Crown, wearing her Majesty's livery, carried him off, and prevented his going to the poll. (Laughter.) Let us, while these facts are fresh in our observa tion, see their bearing on the question of vote by ballot. If you voted by ballot the state of the poll would never be known until the voting was over. (Cheers.) You would have none of this tumult and excitement ; the great merit and the great recom • mendation of the ballot is this, that it would pro mote order, decorum, and morality in taking the poll. lam by no means certain, and I say it in all frankness, that the ballot would have a very deci sive effect in forwarding any one particular party's interest at the poll. lam not prepared to say my views in regard to public questions would be more represented in the ballot-box than they are now by open voting. I think very likely that the party — the political party—that most dreads the ballot would sometimes most profit by it ; but this I say, any one who has inquired as to the conduct of elec tions in America, in Switzerland, in France, in Spain, and anywhere the ballot is adopted, and will com pare them with the tumult, the violence, the blood swhietdn,e tshs e at di:gusting and hideous corruption we as a moral en g ine, elections—l say nobody can doubt the means of repressing these excesses, th e g a l e i e as expedient, w e can I !' is the best resource, the best one illustrative (Cheers.) I will mention fact w h ich I acquired in America on this subject. understand, I am not going Co to quote America as a where you should go for imitation in everythi ng country her political as i ns tit u tions, which are n for us in some re spects as ours would be unfitted for them. (Cheers.) But this I may say passin g , that till:White men of the United States have a theory of which they have laid down in their governm ent astinstitutions, which if the huma n instrument be e qual to the political machine , mea ns to deal j ustl y a nd fairly by every man in their communit y . But now - T con fine myself to one fact that was given to me ; .11 My travels in America. I was speaking to a gentleman —whose letter I may read, for it is in but few words—whose name (Mr. Randall) is known to some of our statesmen here, for I remember he gave evidence before a committee of the House of Com mons upon which I sat to inquire into the mode of proceeding of our Houses of Parliament in order to furnish information as to the rule of the Congress of th e U n it e d S tates. H e i s a man standinghigh , both socially and politically. He mentioned this fact in conversation with me, and, wishing that I should have the full benefit of the information under his own signature, he wrote me a letter after I left Philadelphia, where the gentleman lives (and I shall take care to have it published), a ddressed to me at Washi ng ton ; it con t a i ns theselines, " I have been for 50 years connected with politica l and party movements movements in Philadelphia, a n d Iv en knew a vote b ought or sold." (Cheers.) That eF is one of the lar e ,Test cities in America, and contai ns one of the largest populations of mechanics and workmen, for ' Philadelphia has changed its character from being, as it formerly was, a leading seaport, and has be come almost entirely a manufacturing' city, with 600,000 inhabitants. This g en tleman would not have told me, I am sure, that elections in America are pure in every respect—that there is not very , often a great deal of manoeuvring and party man agement—that there are not to some degree perso nation and double votes, and tne like—he would not have told me that without exception all their elec tions are carried on peaceably and tranquilly ; but he mentioned the fact that the ballot presented such an obstacle to bribery that nobody cared to buy a vote and pay for it when he did not know that he got value in exchange. (Cheers.) Gentle men, I shall say no more of my experience in Ame rica at present, for, to confess the honest truth, I was too kindly treated there ; and I feel that I was received so kindly there from my connection with a great question of cosmopolitan interest ; and I fen, in all humility, that I was greeted as the re presentative of others who had the same claim as myself to receive the kind civilities of that people, and if they presented themselves there they would be received with the same hospitality as myself. But I confess 1 was so kindly treated in America that I feel I am not an impartial witness in their cause, and I ought to say as little as possible on that topic. (Laughter.) Now, it is important that we should see that the source of our electoral sys tem is pure, inasmuch as it is quite evident that for weal or woe public opinion in this country, as manifested at the polling-booths, must become more and more powerful in the government of this country, and not merely in our domestic govern ment ; and this is a question to which at the pre sent moment it is well to refer. It is quite evident that public opinion is becoming more and more potent in matters of foreign as well as domestic policy. We have seen lately, and I have seen with very great satisfaction—it was during my ab sence that it occurred—that the public voice of the country was raised in opposition to any interference by force of arms in the dreadful war which ra ed on the Continent since I left England. Cheers.) Well , I was glad to see f that outburst o public opinion in favour of non intervention, and I congratuate you all, and I con gratulate this country, that for the first time almost in our modern history we have seen great armies march and great battles take place on the Continent without England having taken any part in the strife. (Cheers.) And now shall we take stock just at the present moment, to use a homely, but expressive phrase, rnd ask ourselves whether all the musty predictions and traditions of our old diplomacy have proved to be true in this c ise ? They told us that if we did not mingle in Euro pean wars we should lose our prestige in the world, become isolated, and lose our power. I ask you while the thing is fresh in our recollection, have we really lost prestige or power by having abstained from the late war in Italy ? On the contrary, do we not know that now the great Powers of the Continent, feeling that England is powerful, more powerful than ever in her neutrality, are anxious, are almost solicitous that we should go and take a part in the conferences that are to be held with a view of securing peace ? (Cheers.) Well, gentle men, we have prevented intervention by force of arms, and I say let public opinion manifest itself, as I believe it has manifested itself, against any in tervention by diplomacy, unless it can be in accord ance with principles and for objects of which Eng land may be proud and may approve ; but do not let us have any more Congresses of Vienna— (cheers)—where we are parties to treaties that par tition off Europe, and apportion the people to dif ferent rulers just with the same indifference to their wishes and instincts as though they were so many flocks of sheep. (Cheers.) Now, I think Lord John Russell in the House of Commons laid down certain conditions upon which alone the Go vernment would be disposed to go into a Continen tal Congress in order, if possible, to arrange and perpetuate the peace. He made conditions which I thought were good, and I think they are not very likely to be acted upon or accepted by the great Powers of the Continent. But what I wish now to express—and I am sure I can utter no words that will be more likely to express your sentiments—is, that if England takes any part in the Congress that is to be held by the great Powers on the Continent, her object should be, and the sole condition on which we should go into that Con gress should be, that the Italians should be left free to manage their own affairs (cheers) ; that they should be as secure from intervention—that they should enjoy the privilege of non-intervention in the manag ement of their own internal affairs just as sacred ly as any of the great Powers themselves. (Cheers.) I know what is the excuse that is made by those great Powers for interfering in the affairs of Italy and the smaller States ; they do it under the pretence of preserving order. A hypocritical pretence I have no hes tation in calling it. Do the great Powers preserve order themselves P Have we had perfect order prevailing in the Austrian empire or in the French empire during the last few years ? Do they preserve the earth from blood shed ? Have not these two great Powers during the last six months especially shed more blood in their mad quarrels than has been shed by all the smaller States of Europe during the last 50 years ; and shall those great Powers, for the purpose of interfering, send their armed bands in order to re press the free instincts of the people of Italy ? Shall they be allowed to set up the pretence that they want to preserve order and to prevent blood shed ? (Cheers.) But I will face the chance of disorder. I will say if the Italians cannot settle their own affairs without falling into disorder, why should not they be allowed even to carry on a civil or domestic tumult, or even a war itself, without any other Power venturing to take advantage of that to enter their territory ? Why, how did we act in the case of France when she fell almost into a Red Repub lic 10 years ago ? Was not our Government most eager to proclaim that whatever happened in France we would never interfere with her internal affairs, but leave her free to choose any Govern ment she pleased ? What you allow to the great Powers allow to the smaller Powers. (Cheers.) And I say this not merely in the interest of the smaller Powers themselves, but in the interest of humanity, for there can be no chance of peace, and no prospect of any abatement in those vast military establishments that prevent the people from enjoy ing the fruits of their industry, until you have the principle of non-intervention recognised as appli cable to every small State as sacredly as to the larger ones. I say, therefore—and I do not err when I expressed my conviction that I rightly interpreted your views on the subject—l say the one condition, and almost the sole condition on which our Government should be prepared to take any part in any Continental Congress with refe rence to the affairs of Italy, should be by laying down and insisting upon the fundamental maxim, that Italy should manage her own affairs without the interference by force of arms of Austria, Russia, or France, or any other Power whatever. (Hear, hear.) I confess that I do speak with some strong sympathies on this question. I have had the op portunity of mingling much with Italians. I have travelled in all parts of their country. I have watched with the greatest interest the proceedings of their late elections. I have seen with admira tion the orderly moderation with which they have carried on their elections, though plunged suddenly, as it were, into the furnace of revolution, with all their old landmarks and old authorities disappear ing, and I have been very much struck with this fact, and I mention it not merely for this meeting, but because our proceedings will be heard and read elsewhere. I have observed that I oth in Tuscany and among the Bolognese, the Legations of the Pope, as well as in other parts of Italy with which I am acquainted, the people have not only elected the very ablest men, but the men who by their wealth and position represent the property of their country. There are men—l have seen their names in the papers—elected as their representatives, who are as fairly entitled to he taken as representing the great wealth and in fluence of the country as Lord Derby, Lord John Russell, or Lord Lansdowne would be, or any of our great names of historic family fame in this country. (Hear, hear.) Well, the Italians having done this, have shown themselves capable of main taining order among themselves, are entitled at least to the forbearance of the countries that sur round them ; but we all know that if the more powerful nations choose to send secret emissaries and spend money in corrupting or debasing the least instructed part of the communities, it will be very easy to produce disorders in those countries ; it will be very easy to make it difficult for those eminent men who have been elected as the repre sentatives of the people to carry on a Government not within moderation or success, and if they should fall into disorder by such means, or because they have I ;ia:t n msel t v_es at f l 7 the ae, d moment knows the it elementsm usmu s t b be difficult to find such elements with so little expe rience as they h ave had in such matters—but if a hypocritic6l pretence, that is no reason, it is only the continent should interfere why the strong Powers of e b rfere with them. (Cheers.) Why, what would have coleurare of this great nation , when the last la that elapsed of revolution—if if, when we were in the from 1645 during the hundred years or 1650 to 1746 if, f w i o u l h d ave f in favour of the Stuart dynasty_wh:t was fought d been the fate of this great nation, our inste a d re demption,oallowing us here freely to fight out away and then an other, and overturn one Ministry after another, wh a t to turn first one king would have become of us as a nation if some great Power on the continent immediately we fell into civil war or commotion had planted a large per manen, army on our shores, and insisted on taking the power from the hands of the people of redress ing their grievances, or rescuing themselves from disorder ? Could the nation have grown up with the stamina, power, force, experienee, and wisdom which we have enjoyed ? Why, what we went through during that century was a process of fer mentation, which, in the moral as well as in the physical world, is necessary to throw off impurities —which gives strength to nations or individuals to battle with difficulties. Where would have been our maxims of self-government if that century of commotion of which I speak had been blotted from our annals ; if in any of those contests to which I have alluded we had had a French army or a Span ish army, or the two united, placed in the city of London to control our operations and dictate to both parties ? They might have preserved the peace, but where would have been our liberties ? Now, I contend,—and Heaven knows I shall not be charged with being ono who looks with any thing like sympathy or toleration to violence or bloodshed as a process of obtaining any human good in this world, yet I stand here to maintain the right of every people on the continent, however weak, of having the opportunity of going through the same process which we went through, and if it can be had by no other means, of attaining to the maxims of self-government which we have established by that dreary and melancholy, but in such a case pro bably inevitable, process of civil commotion and strife. Well, gentlemen, I have said that I am in favour of non-intervention in the affairs of Italy. But it may be said, where would Italy have been at this present moment if there had not been the interven tion of the Emperor Napoleon ? Well, lam not going to be so unreasonable as, I fear, some have been, in first having quarrelled with the Emperor Napoleon for going to Italy and then having quarrelled with him for coming away from Italy. (Hear.) He has removed the Austrians from Lombardy, but he has left them in Venetia, and I quite agree with Mr. Gladstone that he has done quite as much for Aus tria in removing her from that perilous position as for Italy in getting rid of her baneful master. I will say more, that I don't think Austria could do wiser than to make an arrangement with Venice and those provinces that are called Venetia for the abandonment of her sovereignty altogether for a consideration, such as the assumption by those pro vinces of a considerable amount of the national debt. They are rich enough to pay such a fine for the blessings of freedom and independence. Aus tria could not do a wiser thing than to remove her self into a territory where she may be tolerated, and perhaps loved ; but in Italy she never can be loved (Hear, hear.) I have said if Austria were wise— but Governments never are wise, and the least wise of all Governments is the Government of Austria; it seems to me that that Government has lived in as complete a stated of blessed ignorance as to what w public opinion as, thinking of it as we were in the middle ages. She might, without all this blood shed; without all her present disasters, have left Lombardy ; she might have received a large pay ment for the independence of that province. Nay, she might have avoided this collision if she had only been content to abstain from interfering with the States of Italy other than those that belonged to her by the Treaty of Vienna, but she would listen to no terms. She made that attack which corn menced the war, and with such a stupid Government as that—and it is the stupidest of all—it is useless to expect any wisdom, and I don't think it is worth while to consider any longer what she might have done. I said I did not blame Louis Napoleon for going to Italy. I did not presume to judge of his motives ; it was no business of mine. Neither did I blame him for coming away, for he did not go there to do my business, or to do my bidding. Really I think we Englishmen have a very high opinion of our own importance and our power to judge people for what they do and what they don't do, without any reference to their rights or pretensions. But, apart from this question of Italy, we have a peculiar in terest in these questions of foreign policy. Our budget, I may say, is framed with reference to our foreign, and not our domestic policy. (Cheers.) It is not what we want to spend at home that op presses and troubles the people with taxes ; it is what we want to spend with reference to our pro ceedings abroad, and it is on that account that I talk to you here of foreign policy, because I see no chance for the progress of fiscal reforms unless we can turn our relations with foreign countries into a diffsrent position. (Cheers.) Now, I don't come here to advocate, and I never have advocated, a principle of defencelessness or total disarmament, or that we should trust any man on the face of the earth, and not be prepared to defend ourselves like rational beings against all probable contingencies ; but what Ido stand up for is this, that which I heard Sir Robert Peel declare in connexion with the very question of our finance, that for England to pretend to take precautions, so that every mile of her coast and every mile of the coasts of her co lonies shall be safe from aggression, is a hopeless and an erroneous policy. He used, in fact, these words, "We must be prepared to take some risks, and the wisest statesman is one that will face some risks rather than undertake these ruinous precau tions." Now, that is my principle and my policy with regard to our foreign policy. (Cheers.) What would you say if I were to tell you, and I do it as the result of a little calculation, that if you take the amount of money which we annually spend in this country as a means of defence and precaution against all warlike aggressions from France—if you take that sum of money, as I will, as the very lowest possible amount, six millions sterling—and I believe it is nearer 12 millions—(hear, hear)—if you assume that we spend six millions sterling per annum as a means of protecting ourselves against the possible aggressions of France, beyond the ordi nary amount of force we should maintain with reference to the preparations for war in the rest of the world ; and if I were to tell you that that sum of money represents far more than the whole of our trade with France, as la consequence, as a political economical maxim, it would be for the benefit of England if France did not exist. And, on the other hand, assuming that the preparations of France were made in the same way and on the same scale with those of England to defend herself against us, then it would be an economical truth that it would be better for France if England were at the bottom of the sea. I ask you one question as a corollary to that. Is a man who calls himself a politician, and does not even aspire to the rank of a statesman, deserving of the name of a Utopist, is he to be con sidered only as living in dreamland and to be held incapable of giving counsel to practical men like the English, if he asks whether there is no possible remedy for such a state of things as that. Is it not hideously unnatural that 36,000,000 people in France, and 26,000,000 people in England, separa ted by only 20 miles ofsea, in 1859 are so incapable, through their Governments, of placing themselves on any footing of real security towards each other, or are so unable to believe the professions, or pro testations, or engagements of each other, that they are keeping themselves prepared in this deadly attitude for mutual attack or defence ? I say is it too Utopian to ask whether diplomacy or states manship could not possibly devise some scheme to spare the world and the age in which we live from such a frightful scandal as this ? (Cheers.) I am not going to trouble you at any great length upon my old question, because you will say that I am harping upon my old string, but I am bound to say that we have very much to answer for ourselves in this unnatural and this most unprofitable state of things. I know that I shall be called to account by those organs of public opinion who claim the right to think for us, and to speak for us, and to pre dict for us, and to guide us, and who expect that we shall allow them to do all that for us, and, if we attempt to say a word for ourselves, immediately chide us as very intolerant and very troublesome people. I venture to state that a large part of the newspaper press of this country, and a good many of the politicians—those weak vessels that follow so easily the lead of a popular cry—have much to answer for in the state of things in which wo are placed at present with regard to France ' • for I hesitate not to say, a s an observer of it, that the increase in the armaments of France and the pre parations in their dockyards, and their other naval and military preparations, so far as they relate to England, have been quite as much provoked by this country as our preparations have been provoked by theirs. Now, probably in this matter we should be more inclined to take the opinion of another country, and I confess to you that, amid all the good feeling and all the respect which I found in the United States were entertained towards this country—(cheers)—the high respect I mean, which is found in offspring towards their parent where the offspring are proud of their parent, or in a parent that is proud of its offspring (and I believe in this case that both have very good cause for that pride)—l say that amidst all the kindness and re spect which were shown, and which I observed in the newspapers were shown towards the English people, to whom the Americans are al wa . ) s ready to admit that they owe everything they possess which is worth having in their great maxim of liberty and freedom, yet, amid all this, there was one thing I saw in their papers which always struck me with shame and humiliation, and that was the ridicule which they always cast upon this con stantly-repeated cry in England about a French invasion, and which made us again and again the laughingstock of the newspaper press of America. I will just read to you one, and only one, extract I which cut from the New York Times, a paper not unfriendly to England, and with a great know ledge of European affairs : " There was a time in English history when the invic late island laughed all foreign threats to scorn, and met even the terrible peril of the Great Armada of Spain with a front of haughty defiance; but that time seems to have THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 18, 1859. passed. - The press and the orators of England hive no capital-stock so rich in sure returns of interest, of custom, as the &Talc terror of invasion, which seems-to have fixed itself in the British mind on the slightest disturbance of the continental relations of the great Powers. On the least ap pearance of unusual activity in the dockyards of France, on the merest rumour of a new combination between one or more States in Europe not commonlyunited in their policy, England at once sets up her outcry of distress, her leading journals thunder alarm over the land; her Parliamentary I candidates make the hustings ring with the dreadful notes of war, her captains take down the sword of Wellington, . and her poets laureate take up the lyre of Tyrtieus. , If England were consciously the weakest or the wickedest of Powers, her conduct in this respect would be perfectly rea sonable • if she knew herself to have fairly earned the hatred of all the world and felt herself unequal to resist the very sword of avenging justice, one might attribute her propensity to panics to causes that would be' national at least, if not respectable." (Hear, hear.) Well, now, I repeat it is not pleasant for an Englishman travelling in a foreign country to read such paragraph as this, and that is the mildest part of the whole article—(Hear, hear, and much laughter)—and there is scarcely a post that has not brought me some newspaper from some part of France or America, particularly from the seaport of Havre and the centres of commerce in France, in which they do not speak with profound pity, with the charity with which wo should listen to a child, of the outcries raised by our newspa pers and speakers about a French invasion ; the Americans have given it the nickname of " the craze"—(laughter)—" the English craze." (Great cheers and laughter.) As to our newspapers, I am sure I do not want them to say one word that is hard against me, for I don't desire to curtail them in their privilege of commenting on and criticising all the world ; they may say what they please of Louis Napoleon or any other arbi trary Sovereign on the face of the earth, and this I tell those- Sovereigns, that if they cannot bear the criticisms of English newspapers in the midst of all their other triumphs, well, they must be difficult to please, for if they " take stock," as the saying is, they will find that they get a great deal more of the good than of the bad treatment of this world, and therefore I think they ought to be content to bear it. I don't want to curtail the liberties of the press at all ; therefore don't let them set up a screech against me, and say I want to put down the freedom of the press ; but this I ask of those newspapers who have been lending themselves to this absurd screech about a French invasion—not to make me ridiculous and the rest of my countrymen by continuing in this tone hereafter. Is that a reasonable request to make of them ? (" Hear," - and laughter.) Well, if you will only treat those panics with the ridicule which they deserve, we shall be able to put an end to them. But now what are the facts ? When I came home and looked into the blue-books that had been presented to Parliament,. I found what I am now going to mention, and I don't believe anybody else ever looked at it or read it, because it did not answer the cry of the moment. It was not pabulum for those newspapers that want to write just in the interests of the moment ; it was just the opposite ; but there was a paper presented to Parliament which was drawn up by the late Government, giving us an account of the French and English navies. It has never been contradicted or denied, and recollect that it had reference to the state of our navy and that of France in 1848, before our present increase. That paper showed that for every vessel France has added to her navy in the last seven years we have added 10. (Hear, hear.) You will observe that while our writers and those public speakers who seem to pander to this panic about the navy gave you the mere statistics of line-of-battle ships and frigates built or in preparation, they kept out of view all the rest of our preparations, and which I venture to say are, and the scientific naval men'of the day have declared to be, the most perfect preparations which you could make against the aggression of a foreign foe. (Hear.) You have 160 odd steam gun boats lying in your creeks and harbours, and they have been pronounced to be, by the highest scien tific nautical men in Europe and America, in the case of any future war, the most desirable means of defence for the country you could possess. In the present state of the improvement of our cannon and the deadly nature of the missiles which can now be projected from them, from the enormous distance at which you can strike an object both with solid shot and hollow shell, the scientific men say that to put a thousand men—l use the very words I used in the House of Commons, and they had the acquies cence of the most intelligent men there—into a line-of-battle ship, with 30 or 40 tons of gunpowder below them, when a single shot from an Armstrong gun, fired at a distance of 3,000 or 4,000 yards, striking the vessel would blow her all to pieces, is a piece of suicide that has given to these vessels in the most scientific minds of America the sobriquet . of " slaughter-houses." (Hear, hear.) At the end of 1848, when this panic began against the French for overwhelming us with their naval preparations we had 200 more vessels moved by steam of all sizes than the French had, while the number of vessels, sailing and steamers, by which we had in creased our navy was tenfold the French increase from 1852 to that time, and what has been the result of this panic outcry • You have added £4,000,000 or £5,000,000 more to your taxationiand expenditure. (Hear.) I have no hesitation whatever in saying, bearing in mind the rule I have laid down before, that all this has been a perfect waste; that you were as safe from any aggression upon your shores as-you are now after all that additional expenditure —(bear, hear) —and what would that money have done—(hear, hear)—if it had been left in the hands of a Chancellor of the Exchequer ? (Hear, hear.) Give me five millions of revenue to deal with, in stead of voting that money by acclamation, as we do, for this useless and senseless expenditure—give me that money to deal with in the modification of taxes, the reduction of Customs duties, the relief of trade from existing encumbrances and interferences —give it to me, and see what can be done with it —see how I could remove encumbrances and ob structions to your commerce ; see how I could re duce those duties which check our intercourse with France,—give me that money to deal with by re div.ing the duties on French commodities, and you will do far more to cement the bonds of peace be tween this kingdom and that—(loud cheers)—,-far more than will ever be done by any preparations for war—(cheers) —for France is a country that you cannot terrify by your preparations. (Hear, hear.) You may provoke her by antagonistic rivalry ; you cannot coerce her into peace by any attempt at great superiority, and let me remind you that while we have heard from France—l don't pretend to know with what truth—that there have been pro posals for a reduction of the navy, our trusty ad visers hero tell us that we must not diminish for a moment our preparaticat3. I will tell you what, in all soberness, the consequence will be, if you show yourselves with your 10 or 12 line-of-battle ships sailing up and down the Mediterranean, which at least belongs to France as much as it belongs to us. , I say that no French Government will dare to dis arm or greatly reduce their navy while you have such a display of force on French coasts. The French have got a length of coast second only to your own, and they have also a commerce that is second to your own. They are a proud nation like yourselves, and they won't bear to see a vastly superior English force at the entrance of their ports. It is all very well for us, in our complacency, to say, " France has no reason to fear England ; England is not likely to go and attack France." By your leave, gentlemen, when. ever there have been any attacks or invasions between England and France for the last 700 years, they , have always been the invasions of France by Eng land, and not of England by France. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) And when you bear in mind that the French read in their school-books of our descents upon their coasts, of our carrying arms to excite rebellion, and of our going about and attacking their great seaports—when they read of this they have a very different opinion of us to what we have of ourselves, and they don't believe us to be a na tion of Quakers, whatever some of us may be. (Cheers and laughter.) Now, gentlemen, I am not sure that the experience of the last six months may not have had a tendency to incline the great Powers of the Continent to peaceful counsel; if this coun try should do its best to promote those views. I think the experience of the last six months must have shown the two great military Powers of the Continent that war is too serious a pastime, in our days, to be resorted to, lightly or at very short in tervals. It is a very serious thing, with our means of lodomotion, and with our tremendous prepara tions of the means of destruction. It is a very seri ous thing to bring 500,000 or 600,000 men into array against each other; for a few days will now do what it would have taken months to do at the beginnine• of last century, and you bring these mighty hosts into instant collision with means of de struction such as the imagination of our forefathers could never have conceived. Well, that has been found out—that public opinion in Europe is not in favour of these wars. I have never presumed since I have spoken in public on questions relating to the ru!er of France—l have never presumed to utter one word in censure or in praise of that individual, and for this reason, the Emperor of the French is elected by the whole people of France, and I believe freely elected, inasmuch as he received more than two-thirds of the whole votes of the country for the position of President when the ballot boxes wore In the hands of his rival Cavignac. I take that as a proof that the feelings of the people were in favour of Louis Napoleon ; I take it for t f g r r e a e ne l ;. as s t t h i a l e t y they vot votes e d forhi f m or a h s im a pres s ide Em nt. per s or uc a h s being the case, what may have been the motives of six millions of people in the election of their chief it is not my business and I have no right to inquire ; I bow to their decision, supposing that • ...they have acted from convictions and impulses which may be right in them, and woald not have been probably Tight in us; but I have always had this impression for the last seven or eight years, that the ruler of France had a perception of the altered times in which we live, and that his career was not to be the career of one who bore his name before ; and this I will say, that if he or any other ruler of the continent should so far mistake the spirit and requirements of the age as to dream of repeating the career of war, of annexation, and of conquest which Napoleon I. achieved, he will find that public opinion, which was impotent 60 years ago, will be sufficiently powerful now to avenge itself against the man, whoever he may be, who may attempt to trouble the industry, commerce, and agriculture of the present world, and deprive the population of Europe of their just expectations of reaping the benefit of those improvements and of those inventions which characterise the age. If such a man should attempt to convert the steam boat, the telegraph, and the railroad merely to pur poses of warlike ambition, he would have the prayers and aspirations of 19-20ths of all the honest and industrious men in Europe in favour of his de thronement and downfall—(cheers)—and where such a majority as 19-20ths proclaims its views, it sooner or later, and not very late, can make its power felt; and such an individual, in mistaking the character of the age in which he lives, will realise very soon in his own person the truth of that Divine precept, "They that take the sword shall perish by the sword." (Cheers.) Gentlemen, as I am to have the pleasure of saying a few words to you to-morrow I will not trespass further on you on that point. I find, however, that lam expected here to offer an explanation on an incident which occurred some time ago. (Hear, hear.) If it should be thought that it is, even at this distance of time, becoming in me to say a few words to you on that subject—and I should certainly have deemed it pre , sumptuous to have said anythingupon it to any one else—(hear, hear)—but if it is your wish, as I understand it is, from your chiefs upon the platform, of course I must obey. I need not tell you, then, that on my arrival in England, when I found myself yourrepresentative, I received a com munication from Lord Palmerston, and also another from Lord John Russell. In his letter Lord Pal merston was good enough to urge many reasons, kindly and frankly expressed, why I should accept a seat in his Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade. Gentlemen, I will not affect any modesty in the matter, but say that I think if I was fit for any post in the Cabinet 1" should have been fit for the one thus offered to me. If other circumstances had not intervened, probably the placing of me in that particular office would have been really putting a square peg in a square hole—(laughter and cheers) —but I will give you my reasons, if you will have them, for declining to accept the honour offered to me ; an honour which I beg to assure you is not a matter of indifference to me, and which would have been peculiarly inviting to me if I had been a man of ambitious character : because, taking it for all in all, the probability is it would have been the first instance in which a man literally springing imme diately from among you, and a man of business, had been offered a seat in the Cabinet. Neither office, then, nor any of its concomitants, could have been indifferent to me, but I felt that it was a matter calling for my anxious consideration, all the more in proportion to the inducements which might have been held out to me in taking a particular course. I went to London, and before calling upon or seeing any one I thought it better to wait upon Lord Pal merston and express to him exactly what were my views on the subject. I may tell you as frankly as I spoke to him what passed between us. To Lord Palmerston I stated my case thus :—I have been for 10 or 15 years the systematic assailant of what I believe to be your foreign policy. I thought it warlike, not calculated to promote peace or har mony between this country and other States. I explained to him precisely what my feelings had been in those words. I said—" It is quite possible I may have been mistaken in all this. When a man takes an idea up and pursues it for 10 or 12 years, very likely his first impression may have been exaggerated." But I put it to Lord Palmerston, and I put it to you, whether, having recorded those•opinions, it was fit and be coming in me to step from an American steamer into his Cabinet, and there and then for the first time, arter having received at hi s h an d s a p os t o f high honour and great emolument, to discover I had undergone a change in my opinions, and whe ther I should not have been open to great miscon struction by the public at least if I had adopted such a proceeding. Gentlemen, I candidly confess to you that would have been a course inconsistent with my own self-respect. (Cheers.) I don't in tend to dwell on that subject because it would be egotistical on my part. I don't mean to claim to myself any more merit than belongs to me, and I do not wish my abnegation in any way to reflect on those who took a different line. I must frankly ' tell you that the course I followed had reference solely to my own strong impressions. As I told the gentlemen who met me at Liverpool, it was a question Which I alone could decide, because I alone was conversant with the extent of my own convic tions with respect to Lord Palmerston's policy ; I was bound to be faithful to those convictions; the more especially so considering the temptations which his very magnanimous offer presented to me. While, therefore, my own feelings prevented me from taking the step which so many of you here wished me to take, and which so many friends in Liverpool and Lancashire generally pressed upon me, I am still very glad to find that my friend, Mr. Gibson, felt himself able to accept office under Lord Palmerston. I was also pleased to see that my friend, Mr. Gilpin, had taken a subordinate office where he will have plenty of work ; for if I tell you candidly I like to find men cropping up, as it were, from the lower strata, who have laboured as hard as any of you, and I am glad, therefore, to see a man stepping into public office from the very ranks of the people, because we want to show that you need not be born in certain regions in order to serve the Queen. (Cheers and laughter.) It is - not necessary I hope for me to add that I had no personal feeling whatever in the course I took with regard to Lord Palmer ston's offer. If I had cherished any personal hos tility towards that noble lord—which I have never done, for he is of that happy nature that he cannot create a personal enemy—his kind and manly offer would at once have disarmed me. I think lam made of very yielding materials when anything like conciliation presents itself, but I really had no such feeling, and I should be sorry if it were thought I had, and if in any of my attacks upon our foreign policy I have said an ythi ng personally offensive to any public man I very much regret it. (Cheers.) I have now only to add that I trust to your kind] and indulgent interpretation of the course which I have felt it my duty to pursue. (Loud cheers, amid which the hon. gentleman resumed his seat.) Mr. Tilos. ASHWORTH and Mr. JACOB BRIGHT seconded the next resolution—namely, • "That this meeting having heard from Mr. Cobden the reasons which induce him to decline the office which a offered him in th e p resen t C a bi ne t, expresses its entire i satis faction with the course ho has pursued, and sees honour n• tan other proof of the clear judgment and the. perfect and disinterestedness by which his public life has been dis tinguished." which was carried unanimously. Mr. W. SHARMAN CRAwFORD then moved : " That in the opinion of this meetingthe se q t u tl e e s m tio e n nt o Par liamentary reform presses . for -immediate ; f that without reform elections will continue to . be corrupt and Parliament will be unfaithful in its trus . t, that so long as one-sixth only of the tidbit male population of the kingdom is entrusted with the franchise, that a small minority, pro bably not more than one-sixth of the existing electors re turn a majority of the Members of Parliament that the coercion of electors is the rule in counties , and the co li expenditure of money, p_ _on of them, through a profligate the practice in boroughs, and that atr - uly liberal and honest Administration is impossible ; that this maeting recom mends all liberal and free constituencies to support the pre sent Government through their representatives only nlyonco dition that the question of Parliamentary reform shall be dealt with in an earnest and geer,ous spirit at the openin g of the next session a Parliament. , Me. F. CROSSLEY, M.P., seconded the resolution, which was supported by Mr. Leathern, M.P. Mr. BRIGHT then addressed the assemblage in support of the resolution. The hon. gentleman said--I am, know, not only one of the as you popu lation but one of the constituency of Rochdale, and it is therefore no intrusion on my part to come for ward to -night to state publicly how mu c h I partici pate in the rejoicing and exultation with which we have met together. I shall not indulge in any laboured panegyric on the character . of your repre sentative. I have had the great privilege of being his political associate and his personal friend for nearly 20 years, and if there is any man in England that I would wish to call my representative more than any other, I have the gratification to-night of being represented by th a t man. (Loud cheers.) From 1832 up to this time the constituency of Rochdale has wisely and honourably, in . my opi nion, exercised its power. For nearly 50 years no candidate on the Liberal side has been required or expected, or even permitted to engage in any per sonal canvass, nor has any Liberal candidate been rcquired or expected to pay one single farthing to wards the expenses of his election. (Cheers.) So far as I am aware there has been nothing done by any leading man on our side in the contests which have taken place which we are afraid to bring to the light of day, or which lies with any weight on our character and consciences. If this description could be extended to all the constituencies of the United Kingdom bow honourable —how glorious— how isuequalled oar position in the eyes of the whole world ! but when we look outside this little circle, what do we. find?—not that there may not be other constituencies of equally high character, but, taking a general view of the constituencies of the United Kingdom, I conic to this melancholy conclusion tnat if there be 50 boroughs in the United Kingdom of equally high character with this, their representatives, when they go to the House of Commons, are met by an overwhelming majority of members who can sa for those who sent them there very littl e of what I have said of tho electors of this town. (Cheers.) The resolution which has been read to you tells you that only one man in six of all your adult countrymen haS a vote. Why, then, go to Italy with your sympathy ? Why ever d ec l a i m against Austria ? Why spend years in abusing Russia ? Why be constantly finding fault with the King of Naples, when five out of six of your own countrymen have no more legal power over the acts of their own Government than they would have if they were Austrians or Russians, or subjects of the King of Naples ? (Cheer s .) A n d yet they call this a representative system whichhas worked well, and it is called setting class against class to tell the five men that they have no idea and the sixth that he is bamboozled and jockeyed till his vote is of no use to him. (Cheers.) The votes of this sixth part are distributed over the counties and the boroughs, large and small. Look at this last election. I might mention previous elections as illustrations of my argument, but I will confine myself to the last. At the last election you had a tremendous fight, more determined and more costly on the part of the Con servative party than at any election for a great many years before. A week after Parliament was assembled it resolved, by a majority of 13, that a Tory Goveimment should remain no longer in office ; but do you believe that that majority of 13 in the House of Commons represented the balance of feel ing in the country against the Tory party ? Take the test of the newspapers. If you can do so, get a list, a statement of the circulation of the newspapers of the Tory party and of the Liberal party. The Tory paper, so far as the news it gives, must be, and for aught I know is, just as good as the Liberal newspaper. It gives the same accounts of all the unhappythings that take place with regard to crime —it gives the same births, deaths and marriages— (laughter)—it gives the same Parliamentary reports —it gives the same accounts of all those wonders that happen periodically to fill up newspapers, that people not at all acquainted with them fancy would not be otherwise filled up—(laughter)—but if you do this you will come to this conclusion, not withstanding a Tory paper may be just as good a newspaper as any other, yet there is something or other in it which the majority of the people dolet like. (Laughter.) They do not like to read Tory newspapers or Tory leading articles ; they are not very logical, they are not very palatable any way ; there is a sort of mustiness about them which the people do not at all like. (Laughter.) It always seems to me very much like eating some thing that is sadly over-kept. (Great laughter.) That is precisely the feeling which the people of England have with regard to the leading articles of Tory newspapers. I have no doubt many a man who reads what I have said will say, " Well, now, that is just what I thought of them, but I did not know how so correctly to express it." (Laughter.) Well, but if you find throughout the country that for every single copy of a newspapersupporting the political principles of Lord Derby's party, there are 10 or 20 or 50 copies of newspapers which oppose the political principles of that party,—then I say it is not an, unfair test with regard to the pre ponderance of opinion throughout the country as respects Tory politics, in opposition to politics which are not Tory. (Hear.) How are elections managed ? My hon. friend the member for the West Riding, who represents the largest, and perhaps the freest county constituency in the king dom, could tell of things done even among his con stituents, and we could tell of things done in this county, but if you look over all the counties of the United Kingdom you find there are very few con tests in them. Somehow or other the event which causes such tumult and excitement in our towns passes over our counties like a Sabbath day, or any other constantly-recurring event, and nobody seems excited by or takes any notice of it. (Hear, hear.) What is the reason ? Do you believe all the county constituencies are of the same opinion P Is every man in any county ? In the north of this county, where there has not been a contest for 100 years, do you think they will agree in opinion ? Do you think they do in any other county in England where contests have been so rare? Do not you think there would appear to be the same difference of opinion among farmers as other people if there were an opportunity of showing it ? Is it not odd that, though they agree in politics they do not agree about anything else ? I will undertake to say that you will not find two farmers agree as to the par ticular weather which would suit farmers at any particular moment, they cannot agree on the pros pects of the market, they cannot agree about any thing but politics, that is who shall represent the county ; in this they agree perfectly, because they do not give the least care about it. (Hear.) In these small boroughs, with very few exceptions, the influence of some great man of pecuniary power, some rich man, carries the election. The small boroughs are merely little arenas in which rich men go to fight a battle which costs them from £l,OOO to £1,500. Somebody loses; somebody wins. One man is an ex-M.P., another malt is an M.P. We delude ourselves if we believe that:this is a system of real representation. In the large boroughs this corruption is found very rarely to prevail. Where voters arc numerous, so that no man and no clique of men can affect the indepen dence of the voters, where no small sums of money nor any considerable sum of money can affect the return, there you have no charge of corruption, and from these boroughs, with one or two exceptions, chiefly where old freemen have prevailed, you have no election petitions. Now a Parliament elected as the Parliament of our day is, by compulsion almost universally throughout the counties, and by cor rupt practices to a large extent in a vast number of the boroughs—l say that a Parliament of that kind can be no real representation, that it intends no real reform, and that it is not a worthy and use ful instrument for the Government of a great coun try like this. The Times tells us that there has been a great deal of bribery and corruption on our side, and I don't in the least mean to say there was not, but it must be recollected that at every gene ralh election the Tories go into Parliament wit probably 200 seats uncontested. The contests . are all in the boroughs. They go into les t s he el v i a g r ib io l u e, s abnod roughs with candidates, more or l moneyandwhnbntkhethteimmewdhrean he w t ane struggle s e g e e t a s N in N T V a i a t r n h l 1 3, to ac who is known to be in a certain minority, as far as the real opinion of the constituency goes, running away with the election by the dint of the corruption which he has introduced into the borough. The majority of the House of Commons does not care about the system of corruption, because it all tends to throw political power into the hands of the great families and the rich. They will leave it, unless checked, I am satisfied, because they know that it is an instrument by which the rich can maintain their power over the Govern ment of the country. But, of course, there are the commissions ; no doubt they are pleasant things for lawy( rs, and I am not prepar e d t o say that they are absolutely useless, because I think that every ex posure of cases of thi s ki n d d oes some good; that, I believe, is all the good which ever yet came from any commission to inquire into the corruption in tahney questionP arl a m Parliamentary a t ?r e b b a o r l l o o u t g ; if th. I he wll ballot n o t w g e roe i n n o t o t so good as we say it is, and I believe that our op ponents would never have so deadly an hostility to it, and with a mode of election found to answer admirably in every other country in which it has been tried, I am not disposed tor believe the same plan could f a il even in the country in which we live. (Hear, hear.) Now, the general result of our system is exactly what has been described, a costliness which has no parallel in the world, and an absence of responsibility which I believe exists neither u,nder the absolutism of Russia or the re. public of the United States. (Applause.) Why is it that in this country so much should be spent, and so much wrung from the industry of the people in taxes ? Are we in this country difficult to govern ? Look at the towns and cities ; I undertake to say, that if you call our excellent mayor as a witness, he will admit that no population that he is ac quainted with is more submissive to law and more in favour of public order,than that over which he has the happiness and honour at this moment to preside. (Hear.) Tako all the boroughs and cities of the United Kingdom, and you will find that the chief magistrates would tell you the same tale. The government of all these towns and all their vast populations are entrusted to the mayor, aldermen, burgesses, the magistrates, the local authorities of the place, and they find the govern ment perfectly easy to manage, and we know what the spread and sparse and separated popula tion of our rural districts are, they are docile enough and do not r equ i re great power or gre at fore° f or their government. Then what has Government to do ? What have the 13 or 15 men who scramble into Cabinets, what has Parliament to hoar P It has two things to do to satisfy the opinion and wants of the country. One is the dispensation of justice impartially at home, and the other is to take such care as may ho necessary, according to the circumstances of the period, and any opinion soyeitndus trio us , of the country, and to defend the country from our an attack from abroad. (Chee r s.) This is all th e Go oy m. sopeople,v and religi ous t h at we Go vernment, r r n n ne en n t t i with tt she oathisc established Christianity moral, le to all th e wor ld i n u so n d i n e s r t t i a n k e e te t d o , this inviolate island, against which no country in of Lords, an d thi s the world has ever dared in earnest to lift a fi nger H o use of Lords that s i ts in the House of hear) —this House second C o mmons, takes from the hea r , industry of the people £70,000,000 annually, that is 50s. a-head for every man, woman, and child in the kingdom. I ask, is it necessary that £70,000,000 a-year should be taken for the government of this peaceable coml• try, or for its defence against I know not what na . - tions, for I have seen no earnest attempt—there is almost only one recorded in history — t o in vade or attack this island ? Now, if I did not thi nk a Parliamentary Reform should enforce a, g reati: responsibility in the House of Commons and t h Cabinet, I would not go across the road to ask for it, and if I thought that after a Parliamentary Reform which should give a real hold into the hands of the peaple upon the national expenditure and the national policy we were to continue mount ing up tit expenditure from £70,000,00 0, a s . 1 t now is, to some higher but indefinite sum, I wo uld not spend my breath or my labour in asking my countrymen to obtain such a measure ; but I sh ould think it a far wiser course to pack up eve r y' thing I had and remove myself and my fam il y to to a country where the people did not on l y pretend to be but ac t ua lly were some degree sane. (Laughter.) Th e Government tha.t, diture we have now is one which, in all probability, w ill be a considerable improvement upon the last; _ i tt s ,i indeed, it may very easily b e —( o , laugh)—and I will not be more difficult for it to be an imPre" - ment also upon the Whig Governments whichre: ceded the Ministry of Lord Derby. There are sour men in this Government not only in whose sent! : meats, but in whose sincerity and conscientio us " ness, I should be disposed t o p u t some relian ce; but recollect they came into power with a majority of only 13 ; indeed, it is not now 13, for the whel e , of the election committees h ave no t decided, and has so happened by some accid e nt or blunder tna! t the assault hitherto has fall en a lmost all on on!! side. The majority has th ere f ore diminished to seven or eight, which is almost no majority at all, or only just better than a m i no rity or an eq ual number. How is this Government to last ? °PP thing I can promise, that if it is like the Whig Governments Governments which preceded Lord D er by it Whig Governments last. The power which p u t ou t those Wing Governments can put out this one. The represen tatives of the free and large boroughs of this king door hold the balance fairly between the two par ties, and I am sure that their power will be threw' into a scale adverse to this Government before long, if it walks in the footsteps of its recent Whig PI: decessors. Having no reckon a bl e ma j or ity in - House of Commons it will probably before. lot/ have recourse again to the co ns tit uenci es. It Wil l depend much on their faithful ness t o the principles on which they were understood to accept offiee,• Take the question of Reform. Lord John Russell:. just before the dissolution, I thi n k th e v ery night when the dissolution was announced, explained what in his opinion if he were a Minister wouldbe the measure of Reform he would be willing to pru" . pose to Parliament. He said he should pr.opose. with regard to the suffrage th a t ever y oc cupier a a house of the value of £lO i n counties and every occupier of the value of £6 rental in boroughs should be enfranchised. Now, I am not going to argue that this is enoug h or th a t it is not enough. I am merely "stating what Lord J. Ens sell said—what the leading man on the side of Re; form and a member of the aristocracy of Englan d pledged himself to bring before Parliament and th e people of England before the late general election; No doubt, there are members of this Government who think that it is rather an extensive measure; there are members who will endeavour to persuad e , Lord J. Russell that such a m easure i s no t desired or necessary; if there be such, I beg to give thew this warningthey will not only fail of bringing forward a measure at all satisfactory to the Refer ° party throughout the country, but they will stamp upon the Government a t ra it o f t reac h ery which 1t cannot survive. (Cheers.) L e t th em re ly, if t'u e - 1, are a Liberal Government, on liberal measures, on liberal principles, and on a liberal people. We are not asking for extreme measures ; we have been ' a patient people, too patient unde r th e insults an under the privations which we have endured. They, have no right to sa y th a t th e man who as k s that every occupier of a £lO h ouse i n a county, o r a Xi, hous3 in a borough, sho u ld b e en f ranch i se d i s a man asking for extreme measures. If that be extrem e ' then Parliament is e x t reme , representat i on is sr. surd, and the soon er it i s d one away, pro b a bly, II; better. (Cheers.) We who live among the peop l e know perfectly well that w ith a const it uen cy li e that, with a better distributi on of, seats, With ,- establishment of vote by b a ll o t, we s h ou ld have,: Parliament more respo ns ibl e t o pu bli c sen timenl more truthful to its trust, m ore anx i o u s t o husban": the public resources, and more capable to conduct the government of the country with honour and to the common interest of all the people. (Cheereq Now, let us turn, as we are turning, from the fright ful themes which have been before us of late—fret all the pictures and accounts of carnage. I s a y not who is guilty. I point not to'the roan, or men, but I hope the time is coming when the finger of all mankind and the fierce eye of all human na ture will be turn e d i n condemnation against those criminals who thus destroy human life. (Cheers.) Let us turn from these terrible scenes which have filled the columns of our newspapers, and look at home, where we have so much to do. Are we not a people here hard working from morn ing to night, from January to December, almost from our cradles to our graves ? Have we not among ourselves much to instruct, much to help' much claim upon justice, with a fair and free field of exertion and competition besides. Let us attend to all these, to our home affairs, for here lies our interest. Our people have been patient in suffer ing, they have been heroic in labours and in strug gles, and I count the ambition of public life to be of a low and worthless kind if it be not an ambi t noble hsiins e peoplesseat s th amid n a home . oumeetingd tion to devote every faculty we poss ess t o th e true e interests, the permanent welfa re , an d rea l eleva selh cheer" in. After a e g hen.t°nogentleman that gre formal t and resumed business some rated, the proceedings • concluding with the usual vote of thanks to the chairman. 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John Shorland, late surgeo n ' 96th Regment."—Cure ' Ne. 48,314 : Miss Elizabeth 1 17. man, Gateacre, near Liverpool —A cure of ten years' 4 ir e pepsia, and all the horrors of nervous irritability.—".., No. 46,814—Mr. Saml. Laxton, Leicester, of two years d l 7__ rheea.—Cure No. 62,612—The Dowager Countess of CasY! . fo stuart, of many y ears nervous irritability, bile, and indigesti b , fn tins, at ls. 6d. ; 11b ., 3s. ; 21b., ss. 9d.; 511 3 ., 128.; 12 ,: t .;, 265. The 101 b. an d 121 b. tins carriage free, on receipt of office order. Du Barry and Co., 77, Regent-street, Lond9, Fortnum, Mason, and Co., 182, Piccadilly ; Abbis._ Gracechurch-street ; 4, Cheapside ; 63, and 150, Oxter it „ street ; 330 and 451, Strand ; 49 and 60, Bisho_ps(t,, , street ; 85, Tottenham - court-road . Also at 1 )11 , 1 '7, Bewley and Draper ; at Edinburgh, R.aimes and L'a at Liverpool, Nixon and .Thew ; at Manchester, Shang Scott; at York, Rainies, Blanchard, and Co. ; at Soutb ampton, Randall and Son. BIRTHS. BunGnEnsn.--On the 16th inst, at Curzon House, South Awlley-street, Lady Burghersh, of a son. CnooK.—On the 16th inst., at Chamber Hall, near Bolter', the wife of Joseph Crook, E sq .. M.P., of a son. LLOYD.—On the 16th inst., at Abbot's Moss Northwi° l4 Cheshire, the Lady Fran c e s Ll oyd, of a son. MAcLAnmv.—On the 16th inst., at 29, Harley-street, 1411 ' A. C. MacLaren, of a daughter. MARRIAGES. SPEARIKAN--FITZ-MAITAICE—On the _ 16th i n st., at St. George's, Hanov er - square, Edmund Robert Spearmit second son of Si r Al exander Young Spearman, Bart. 9, to Maria Loui sa ri tz-Maurice, youngest daughter of , Earl of Orkney, WILKIN—WiLLIAms.—On the 16th inst., a t Dolgelle: Charles Wiikin, Esq., of 10, Tokonhouse-rd Lomat: v .,: Charlotte, daughter of Lewis Williams, Esq., I r r °7l n, Dolgelley, Merionethshire. DEATHS. BARRATT.—O n the 10th inst., at the Canteen, Weod °/1 ' Mr. Richard Barratt, aged 69. C LEMENT.—On the 14th inst., at Carrick-on-Shannon, Car tain C. T. Clement, aged 36. CLERK.—On the 15th inst., at Market-Overton, Rutland , the Rev. John H. Clerk, M.A., aged 81. Eas t Comaxs.—On the 12th inst., at King's Farm Lodge, at — a Sheen, Mr. Edward Collins, of 314, Oxford-street, Lon don. GOULD.—On the:lsth inst., at 10,Adelaide-road, St. John''' . wood, Mr. C. T. Gould, aged 43. KELLY.—On the 13th inst., at Taunton, Capt. W. Kellyr _ R.N ., aged 78. Lliwis.---On the 15th inst., at Bath, Chas. J. Lewis, E SC I I of St. Pierre, Monmouthshire. LONDON : Printed and Published by MURI3OYOUN O, of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tice 8w; Office, No. 112, Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the ccuntY • Sliddlasex, Thursday, August 18, 1869. L