The Sun. — London, England, 1864-01-30 00:00:00

Mr. John Bright, 111,P„ on Political Changes. BIRMINGHAM, Friday Evening. This evening Mr, Bright was present at a soiree at the Royal Hotel. The large room of the hotel, in which the proceedings took place, was crowded, and the chair was occupied by Mr. Holliday, the mayor. After various addresses had been delivered by local celebrities, Mr. W. MORGAN proposed " Success to the patriotic Labours of the Members for this Borough," which was re ceived with great cheering, Mr, BRIGHT, when the cheering had subsided, said—Mr. 3layor—l am afraid that I cannot, in such graceful lan guage as would have been heard from the lips of my hon. colleague, had he been present, express my pleasure at the company of the ladies who have been kind enough to join our party to. night. (Hear.) I can say, with the greatest truth, that I rejoice on this, as I have rejoiced on many other occasions, to see them exhibiting an interest in the :progress of political questions. It has not only been com =on to create the impression that what are called serious people should not meddle with politics, but that those pub lic questions were entirely out of the field in which women should exercise themselves, I venture, not diffidently, but confidently to differ from any such opinion, and to say that politics, by which we understand the science of legislation, have a very direct and constant influence upon the happiness of every female in every country where there, is a govern ment; and that therefore what is done under the name of political action can by no means be indifferent to the mothers and wives and sisters and daughters of England. (Cheers.) I have had the pleasure of meeting whilst I have been in Birmingham a gentleman who I suppose— ltt I have not been told so—does not generally act with our political party; and after much conversation, and after I had told him that some time when I came to Bir mingham ;I would speak on a particular question, he said he should be very glad if some time or other I would make a speech on the bright side of England. (Cheers and laughter.) You understand, I dare say, the sort of sarcasm that was contained in that suggestion. I suppose, as he does not agree with me on many subjects, he thought I took too gloomy a view of the position and prospects of this country. Now I will admit that there are a great number of speakers, and a great number of writers, whose business it seems to be always to persuade everybody in England that everybody is well treated and perfectly happy, and they advise them to avoid the errors of the french on the one hand, and the mistakes of the people of America on the other, If everybody was contented and happy, and there was nothing that it was our business to reform, I should stay at home. I have no fondness for poli tical meetings and platform work, and I should not for the last 20 years have given the whole of my time to public questions, if nothing had been necessary but to come before audiences and to rejoice with each other at the glorious position which we occupied. (Cheers.) It is the very exis tence of grievances which calls me from the quiet of my home and from the pursuit of my business, and from atten tion to my own family; and whenever I find there is nothing for me but to say what a happy people we are, and how de lightful it is to be under the government of Lord Palmer ston and his Whig colleagues, then I can assure you that I will not trouble you with saying that. I shall leave you to find it out, and shall stay at home. (Cheers.) But still there is a bright side in the prospect of England, and you may see some of it probably looking forward, and you may see a good deal of it in looking backward. The bright side of the history of this country, so long as I have been able to take any part in it, is that side on which are delineated the changes that have taken place—changes which I, at any rate, have the satisfaction of knowing that I have supported, and changes which no doubt many of those who would wish me to speak in a different tone have to the utmost of their power opposed. I have been thinking rinse 1 came into this room what those changes were. I am rather what I may call trapped into a speech to. night, because I thought we were coming here merely to a conversational meeting, that there would be no tables and very few forms, and that we should walk about the room and make ourselves acquainted with each other, and have some tea and coffee, and conversa tion ; but I find that the managers of the meeting have de signed otherwise, and I have been informed that I am ex pected to make a speech. Now, :one cannot make speeches without thinking of what should be said ; and I have been looking over the great changes which have taken place in the time many of you can recollect, and which form the bright side of our history so far as it is to be found in our lifetime, Many of us can remember 30 or 35 years ago, and if there be any gentleman who complains of the tone of my speeches in general, I would ask him to bear in mind what are the changes which have taken place, and if he can, to measure their results on the prosperity, the peace, and the happiness of this country. (Hear, hear.) The first great measure which suggests itself to my mind is a mea sure which gives a certain great right—the right of Parlia mentary representation—to which I may call almost the whole nation of Ireland, being the Catholic population of that country. (Cheers.) tip to the year 1829 no person professing to hold the Christian religion as it is held by the Roman Catholic Church was permitted to sit in the House of Commons. There was at that time, I suppose, five mil lions, or near upon five millions, of Roman Catholics in Ireland, but they were not allowed to send to the House of Commons any man agreeing with them in religious opinion. It is in the recollection of many of us that it required an agitation of a most formidable character, led by one of the most remarkable men that Ireland has ever produced, Mr. O'Connell (cheers)—to obtain the concession of that right. Ind bear in mind that it was opposed by a very powerful party in this country, and there is a party in this country even yet who regret that that concession was ever made, (Hear.) Although it may be said that we are in a sense a free country, yet thirty five years ago five millions of r Catholics in Ireland, and perhaps nearly one million in England, were shut out altogether from representation in Parliament from being able to return any man of their own religious sentiments, and every one was prevented from be coming a candidate for a seat in Parliament; therefore, as respects these men, this was not for them a free country. The next great step that was made was one in which Bir mingham took so distinguished a part. On looking back, I mink we may doubt whether the Reform Bill could have been carried at the time it was carried if it had not been for the strenuous and protracted efforts of the inhabitants of this great town. (Cheers.) The party which has always opposed, and does apparently oppose every step in advance, run the country to within 24 hours of a revolution before they conceded that measure; and when it was conceded it was so far mutilated, so much changed from the original proposition, that, on the whole, although great, it was so deficient that we look upon it as leaving the representation of the country in a very unsatisfactory state. (Cheers.) After that bill had passed, as was natural after so great an agitation, there was a powerful swell of Liberal opinion throughout the country, which did not satisfy itself by the passing of the bill, but carried other measures of great im portance. One of these was a bill by which all the corpora tions of the towns and cities of the kingdom, with one or two exceptions, were reformed. Up to that time there had been no real representative government in any town in the king dom. About half a dozen or a dozen, or two dozen men, self-elected, or elected by some landed proprietors or some lord of the manor, were the governors of your towns and formed your corporations, and their corruption was of a character so foul that the odour of it remains in the nostrils even until this day. (Loud cheers and laughter,) Now although corporations are by no means centres of absolute wisdom—(laughter) —I say that of course with great trepi dation in the presence of your worthy mayor and others who surround him—(renewed laughter)—yet I think it must be acknowledged that the passing of that bill and the reform of these corporations has been to this country an enormous advantage, and I only hope that corporations generally will become much more expensive than they have been—not ex pensive in the sense of wasting, but that there will be more nobleness and liberality amongst the people of our towns and cities, giving our corporations leave to expend more money in those things which, as public opinion advances, are found to be essential to the health and improvement and comfort of the inhabitants. (Cheers.) About the time when that celebrated measure was passed there passed ano ther still more celebrated, because it affected not England alone, but the o pi n i on of the world, and excited emotion in the mind of every good man in every country, and stirred an him, I believ e , t h e lasting admiration of the world and the magnanimity of the English people. I speak of that measure which emancipated 800,000 slaves in the colonies of England, and did even more than emancipate 800,000 slaves, for it set an example which the world could not help but follow ; and, you may rely upon it, that from that great act is to be dated , to a larg e extent, the creation of that conscientious feelingin America, which has been grow ing from that day to this, and owing to the unteachable spirit of the slaveholders of that country has finally ended in bringing a great nation into the throes of a fearful revo lution, out of which, I trust, not only will that nation itself he purified, but the 4,000,000 of slaves will be free. (Loud cheera.) And, sir, whilst that passes through my mind, I eau not help, fo r a mome nt, touching upon th e f act that one <et your citizens (Mr. Sturge) now no more, my personal andintimate friend, was one of the most eminent of those Nvho. endea voured to stir the conscience to that grea t act of justice, and I never pass, as 1 often do pass when I am h ere , that marbl e fi gure of him,' the most conspicuous which you have erected in on e o f place s of your town, without hoping that every citize n of Birrain when he to consi der public questtoiozioavhhreetfh:r r a e l3 grdingtlu's c c o o m un es try or that ether country is srehne has already been made— where that great struggl e endeavour to be animated by theeg .carried on—that ho will Whioh disnaterested and the noble and the Christian spirit by (Cheers,)yo T ur late eminent towns man was distinguished, notof f here is another law to which I might refer, but it is the i same character, though no doubt it has been productive some cases of -a' elvantage—l mean the law that Wasn passed for the reform of the laws for the ad ministr a ti on of thepaos o out the country. That law was subj ected, I r thbelireovueght o greater assault than almost any other law, f or long after it was enacted it had features in it th a t seemed hash, and unfortunately its administration was entrust e d t o the hands of men who appeared to make it as unpalatabl e as possible to the people. Notwithstanding, I am free to say th a t, look ing back to it as a measure, I believe it is one which did credit to the Whig administration of that day—t o t h eir courage, to their legislative and administrative capacity in the carrying of it. I mention it, therefore, as one of those to the coun changes which I believe have been satigactory try, and which have passed during the time I am sketch ing. (Cheers.) Well, then, after that we came to a very quiet, and, I may say, an unsatisfactory time—the Whigs had settled comfortably into their places—they lir , ve, I be lieve, a motto which, however, they have not rublicly an. nounced, which is this, "A place for every man, and every man in his place." (Great laughter and cheers.) That means of course, every man of their respectable party. (Laughter.) After this time they became very much indisposed to go further, and the satisfaction of the country with them gra dually diminished, their majorities in Parliament were re duced, and finally, they came to a general election in the year 1841 ; bat nine years after the passing of that great measure of reform, they were thrown out of office by the constituencies, and a :Parliament was returned with a ma jority against them little short of 100 votes. Now, at this time there came another great change into sight, and an other new principle, though it has not been new within the last generation or two. The 'principle of free trade was brought before the public, very much in consequence of the sufferings which arose from the bad harvests we had imme diately preceding the general election. It took from the year 1838 to the year 1846 to bring about that great change— the abolition of the corn law. A Parliament was elected in 1841, with a majority of 90 pledged against the abolition of that law. Sir Robert Peel was the great leader of that great party, and having found themselves in Parliament with this enormous majority, they looked down upon all of us who were moving in that question, and considered that they were absolutely sure tostmintain that law and to main tain their places. Well, the result shows how much is to be done by continuous, disinterested labour on behalf of a great cause by appealing to the sympathies of a whole nation. (Cheers.) In 1846, particularly at that moment, owing, no doubt, to the failure of the harvest and the difficulties which threatened from an impending famine in Ireland, this vast majority melted away. Men who had pledged themselves in every form of language to their constituents in 1841—who had attended meetings to abuse the Free-traders, who had subscribed to newspapers to abuse them, found their whole power melting away, and their leader himself converted to the necessity of a change ; and a change took place —a change so great that all the members of the House of Com mons, and I think the majority of the House of Lords, be lieved that to them at least the world was pretty nearly at an end. (Laughter and cheers,) I recollect a lady relative of mine sitting below the bar of the House of Lords on the night when the Corn-law Repeal Bill was read a second time. It was very late, or rather early in the morning when the division was approaching, and a lady sitting near her, who was a connexion of some peer, spoke to the peer as he came out from the house. She said, " How will it go?" It was just before the division. He pointed to the clock in an agony of excitement, and exclaimed, "In 20 minutes we shall be no better than dead men." (Laughter and cheers.) Now, then, the corn law was abolished, and if they had told the farmers—those terrified farmers, and the landlords, who were almost still more terrified—l am not sure that any of them would have ever found it out; the country would have found that it was much better off, and the people would have discovered that by some power they could not imagine loaves and provisions, to the amount of twenty millions of pounds sterling per annum, had been deposited in their houses for the sustenance and en joyment of their families; they would not have known how it was all brought about, although we all know that it was brought about by the repeal of a single act of Parlia ment. (Cheers.) It was not by a number of benevolent ladies and gentlemen forming a society all over the country and giving the people alms, but it was by the repealing of an act of Parliament—by a simple act of justice —an act which was so just that I scarcely ever heard a man deny its justice except on something which they call political consi derations. (Hear, hear.) They say there were political rea sons why that great act of justice could not be done. I re collect meeting once with a very pious banker that I hap pened to travel with in the North of England, and he ad mitted it was very unjust that there should be a law to make food scarce and dear, but he said "I accept it because I be lieve it necessary to maintain the hereditary aristocracy of this country." (Laughter.) And, further, he said he thought our greatness in the eye of the world depended very much on the maintenance of the wealth, and the power, and the display of the aristocracy:of England. (Laughter.) That is exactly the sort of reasoning which people give ; weak minded men are attracted by reasons of that kind, and they give you reasons now not a bit better for opposition to the changes which many men wish to promote, and which doubt less, by-and• bye, will be effected ; and their results will show that those who have opposed them were just as silly, and just as little worth following as my traveller, the pious banker. (Laughter and cheers.) But the question of the corn laws was not all—there was the question of sugar, in 1840. It is not very long ago the single article of sugar in this country cost, by reason of the monopoly, not less than six millions sterling more than it would have cost if you could have bought it freely in the market of the world. Well, the fall of the corn monopoly, being the key -stone of the arch, let down everything else belonging to it and supported by it, and the sugar monopoly fell, and I don't know how many others, such as those connected with the supply of timber from abroad, and one still more important— the monopoly our shipowners had the abolition of which has been found to be injurious, I be lieve, to nobody, but greatly advantageous to the whole country. (Cheers.) Well, then, when this was done the course was perfectly easy for your Chancellors of the Ex chequer. It has been all driving down hill with Mr. Glad stone since then. He began with a tariff which had 800 or 1,000 articles—l am not sure that there were not even 1,200 articles in it on which duties were raised in our ports. When the names were read of those which were to be abolished there was a general laugh in the House of Commons ; peo ple turned to each other and asked " What is that ?" "Did you ever hear of it ?" They were things people had never heard of, but still heavy duties were levied upon them. At present there are only 12 or 15 articles on which duties are levied ; all the things which were formerly taxed came freely into the country, and we have made a very great clearance in that matter, and a revolution in regard to it more com prehensive and more advantageous to the country than pro bably has ever been made by any other Government within the same time in the world. Ido not think that those who were most active in promoting these changes could be re garded by certain people with much more confidence than they were before, but still the changes were made, and they had worked well for the nation. (Cheers.) Then we came to the question of the treaty with France. I was born just before the termination of that monstrous and wicked war which was so long carried on with France; and the school books of my time and of yours mostly, no doubt, were filled, at least they contained insinuations against the French that were not flattering to that people—(laughter) —and there were representations on the stage, as I am told by those who frequented tha theatres at the time, to the same effect. There prevailed a general feeling that there was some risk to Englishmen if they became too well acquainted with the French, lest by any possibility they should learn to believe that the French were not the natural enemies of England. (Hear, hear.) Well, my friend, Mr. Cobden—who, as you know, is occasionally favoured with very abusive language from the great instructors of the press —(laughter)—thought that the Emperor of the French, and some persons who were occasionally consulted by him, would be very glad to have more intimate relations with this country, and ho went over to Paris, he sought and obtained an interview with the Emperor ; he discussed these questions with him, and found the Emperor not only most willing, but moat anxious that the people of the two countries should be introduced to each other by the medium of extended commerce, (Cheers.) His object was, for I heard him say so, that the people be ing thus knit together, it would not be in the power of rulers and statesmen hereafter to enter into those frightful struggles which, now we looked backed upon them, we can say have for centuries disfigured the history of the two nations. (Cheers.) There is another question, which cer tainly must possess some interest ; but with regard to that to which I have just adverted, I ought to say further, that it was not, as war observed the other day by Mr. M. Gib son, at Ashton, one of our regular diplomatists, who effected that treaty, it was done solely by my friend Mr. Cobden-- (cheers)—and as the ericketers would say, he got it en tirely off his own bat—(cheers and laughter)—and I venture to say that as long as the history of France and England is read, it will be read of him, that a simple statesman of this country, interested in iM welfare, interested in peace be tween France and England, interested in the spread of great and enlightened principles of commerce throughout the world, went over to Paris and there negotiated with the Emperor of the French a treaty which I believe to be the most important document of the kind that has ever been signed by the rulers of any two nations of Europe. (Loud cheers.) From that I pass, ;perhaps, to the last of those topics that I shall touch upon, and that is, to another kind of freedom in which no person in Parliament was more actively engaged than Mr. M. Gibson, Mr, Cobden, and myself, and that is the fredom of the Press. (Cheers.) When you pay a penny for your admirable newspaper in this town you are not conscious, perhaps, of what happened only a very short time ago. The paper on which it was printed say ten years ago, had a penny stamp upon it ; the paper itself did not cost more, probably, than a halfpenny or three farthings, and therefore there was from 100 to 150 per cent tax upon that paper, before my friend Mr. Jaffrey could touch it. I am speaking now of the stamp, but there was at that time a tax of threepence, and afterwards of three-half. pence per pound on the paper itself at the paper mill ; this unfortunate article might have been the greatest of all nui sances, it was made out of the vilest rags and rubbish, and then the Chancellor of the Exchequer put upon it a tax of threehalfpence per pound. The moment it was sent to the newspaper office it was necessary to send it to a Govern ment office to be stamped, unless the manufacturer had stamped it previously; and when this was done, if he put into the paper an advertisement of a cook wanting a place or a lady wanting a nurse, or a pupil wanting a tutor, if the advertisement consisted only of a line, or three words, or even one word, it was li a bl e to a tax of is 6d. Some people at that time said we were a free country, and some said that we had a free Press ; and in the House of Commons it re quired every kind of argument and every kind of fact, in addition to ordinary fact s an d arguments, to induce 'the house to make any change, and it required this argument and this fact to convince the Chancellor of the Exchequer that unless he would undertake to remove the duty there was not a single thing he proposed to do that the house would not oppose. (Cheeers.) By getting the Chancellor of the Exchequer into a fix of that nature by absolutely wor rying him into this act of justice, and by the wonderful skill with which Mr, Gibson conducted the question through Parliament, what have we now ? We have a gentleman so eminent as the Speaker of the House of Commons the other day at a meeting over which ho presided, expressing him self in terms of very high commendation and admiration of the penny newspaper press of this country. (Cheers.) But what did all the people say who opposed us? They said first of all, "You will steal everything from the Times." Well, I do not think that anything could by any possibility make the paper so bad as stealing everything from the Times. (Cheers and laughter.) The Globe newspaper, I believe, charges four or five pence, whilst other papers, quite as good and quite as large, are selling at a penny. The Globe newspaper declared that these cheap papers would do nothing but crib paragraphs and news from the respectable papers without acknowledg ment. Why the Globe newspaper itself is made up almost entirely of scissors-work—(cheers and laughter)—and I have seen in it, repeatedly, paragraphs which it has copied from the penny press of the morning without the least acknow ledgment. (Cheers.) Now I venture to say that every pro phesy of the opponents of a free press so far have failed that, whether it be in the quality of the writing, or its elevated and moral tone, or the industry with which facts and news are collected and offered to the people, the newspapers which are sold at a penny will bear comparison with any of their dearer neighbours ; and that there is but one opinion throughout the whole kingdom, except it be in some par ticular man whonever could find out anything himself, and never could be taught anything—(laughter) —there is but one opinion as to the inestimable benefit which the freedom of the Press has conferred upon the people of this country, (Cheers.) Now is it not very:curious that every one of the changes which I have mentioned is almost by universal consent admitted to have been a beneficial change? (Cheers.) You can hardly find a Tory now—it is a blessed thing that somehow or other the Tories die off, or they change— (laughter and cheers)—you can hardly find any of them now who will not admit that a great many of these changes have been wise and beneficial changes for the country ; and yet these very men set up to be authorities on such matters. They have told you at every step that you weredestroying the best interests of the country—they have rushed to the poll with frantic gladness to support men who would oppose these changes ; and, having been wrong in every single thing for the last 25 years, at this moment without a blush—with out the slightest appearance of embarrassment—they will come before your constituencies and ask them to believe that they are the wise men, and that wisdom will die with them—(cheers and laughter)—and if there had been no vio lent party spirit—and these men would have given them selves, if they were capable of it, some intelligent thought on these questions, it is not likely that every one of these changes might have been made at an earlier period, and that the public might have possessed for 20 years the ad vantage of reforms which, owing to the obstinacy of their opinions, they have only enjoyed for the last five or ten years. (Cheers.) Well, I do not know, but I suppose there are not many of their class of gentlemen here, or else I might try to improve the occasion, and to see if I could not reach, as I believe the preachers say, their intellects and their consciences, (Laughter.) There are other questions, now, to which these men might turn their minds if they liked, unless they have been so long fixed that, like a wea ther vane become rusty, they cannot turn at all. (Laughter.) There is a question that has been discussed of late years, and will come on again for urgent discussion before long.—the question of Parliamentary reform. (Loud cheers.) It is 30 years and more since the Reform Bill passed. It was not a gradual, though it was a great bill when it passed ; and to show you how insufficient it was, I have already men tioned that in nine years after it passed, so entirely had the old governing class recovered from its fall, that it entered Parliament in 1811 with a majority of 90, and we know very well that leaving an immense number of small boroughs that are assailable and manageable, and leaving the county constituencies as they now are, giving the counties into the hands of three or half a dozen landed proprietors, and shut ting out the great bulk of the people from the franchise everywhere, it is not to be wondered at that we should find ourselves nine years after the passing of the Reform Bill in a minority in the House of Commons, and at this moment in a position in which nobody seems to know exactly whe ther there is a minority or a majority. What has taken place since 1832 ? Why, nearly all the changes I have mentioned have taken place, not changes in Birming ham alone, but similar changes all over the kingdom almost. Have not your schools been extended to a great degree? Have not the habits of frugality and industry of the people become confirmed ? Is not the country more peaceful, the law more generally observed ? Are not your magistrates and all men in authority held in better regard than they were 30 or 40 years ago ? Do not we all feel that there is a more just and generous spirit spread among the people and animating the masses ? And unless we are pre pared to say that the English Constitutien is not the Con stitution by which representative Government is formed, and that we have no right to share in the administration of the affairs of our country, then a small, and a powerful, and a rich class, acting upon a portion of the middle class, di vided so that the influence of theirs becomes almost irre sistible, must have the government of the country handed over to them for ever. Unless we are prepared to say this, we have no right to call ourselves free men, living in a free country, and therefore we must determine, before long, that there shall be another substantial measure of Reform. (Cheers.) The other night.' referred shortly to the ques tion of emigration from this country. lam told, though I have not , seen it in print, that a newspaper which does not require to sustain its character to be at all fair to those whom it judges, has declared that I put myself up as an advertising agent for the American Government. The ad vertising agent, the practical advertising agent far the American Government, are those who refuse to do jus tice to the English people. (Hear.) Why, Mr, Bancroft, the best historian of his country, has declared that Europe should never forget that the history of the colonies of America is the history of the crimes of Europe. (Cheers.) We know perfectly well how it was that those noble men who colonised New England, and whose spirit yet lives on the continent—(cheers)—and is now, I will venture to say, directing the energies of that Government in the preserva tion of the nation, and in the establishment of freedom from the Pole to the Gulf, quitted there shores. We know perfectly well that they were driven from this country by the oppressions of despotic monarchs, and what shall I say F—a despotic and, in that day, an insolent Church —(cheers)--and we know that from that time to this there have landed in the United States hundreds of thousands-- I think three or four millions—of persons who have emi grated from the United Kingdom, the largest portion of them from Ireland. I have said before, and it is well to say it on every suitable occasion, that such has been the con duct of the Government of England to the people of Ireland, that wherever an Irishman plants his foot on any foreign land, having quitted his native soil for ever, there he stands as an enemy of England, that I suspect nothing can recon cile to his native country. (Loud cheers.) Well, but if the government of Ireland by England had been a just government—only going back as far as the time of the union, now little more than sixty years ago—all that would have been wiped away long since, and Irishmen would have been as loyal and as contented as any class in England. If they had found it necessary from any cause, much fewer of them would have found it necessary to transport themselves to the United States ; and you would have found in the United States a feeling that they had not been driven by injustice from their native land, which would have induced them to say on revisiting these shores— . of sound judgment, of great moderation, and many good qualities which I believe his political opponents did not think it advantageous to give him credit for. He spoke about the war that was then beginning between the French and the Austrians, and he said that when he was young there would not have been a statesman in England of any party who would have hesitated for a single moment to go into that war on the side of Austria against France, with the view of preventing the increase of French influence in Italy ; but he said ho hoped, and he thought it was proba bly true, that statesmen had grown wiser since that time. We did not go into the war in Italy. Our Government did not take sides with Austria, nor yet with France. The people generally, I think, were rather in favour of France, because they thought France was in favour of freedom in Italy. But supposing the country had gone into that war, it is difficult to conceive that things would have been better than they are now. Possibly they would have been worse ; thousands of oar countrymen might have found graves on the continent; great sea fights might have taken place; the French Treaty would not have existed, and the growing harmony between the two countries would have been mise rably interrupted. (Hear, hear.) I will not go back to the Russian war. You know the part I took on that ques tion. I believe it is owing to the part I took on that occa ' sion that I have the honour of now being your representa tive. (Cheers.) How were you dragged or beguiled, or excited into that war by the statements of two aged Minis ters. They could have kept you out of it. I will not impute to them motives other than perfectly honourable motives ; but saturated as I say—saturated, mind, with the doctrines of a bygone time, a time, I hope, never to re turn, they fancied that it was the duty of this small island to take care of a rotten Government, and of a country de vastated by the rottenness and corruption of that Govern ment, at the extremity of Europe; and the result was that among the various contending nations at least 400,000 men's lives were sacrificed, and probably as many millions of trea sure ; and instead of settling Europe on a permanent basis —for they always tell you that they fight for the purpose of obtaining a permanent peace—you find that Europe has double the number of armed men, and has doubled the mili tary expenditure, (Hear.) I now come to another question, the dispute between Denmark and Germany. lam one of those who are not indisposed to sympathise with these who wear crowns when they ate in troubles and difficulties. We know that the difficulty which has overtaken the King of Denmark is not of his own creation. There has been a diffi• culty many years with regard to the duchies. It has not been settled. Perhaps now it may be settled ; but 1 doubt extremely whether anything that England could do by sending 25,000 men into Schleswig, and by sending fleets into the North Sea, into the Baltic, and into the Adriatic, would tend to the permanent settlement of the question. Questions of that nature are only permanently settled when they are brought to a conclusion by those who are deeply interested in them. We are not deeply interested. I do not see that we are interested because the Prince of Wales has married the daughter of the King of Denmark. I think nothing would be more unfortunate, and that nothing could be more intolerable, than that whilst the members of the Royal family of England are not allowed to marry from English citizenship, that marrying abroad they should, therefore, embroil Englishmen with the quarrels of foreign countries. I can imagine nothing more likely to make an Englishman doubt whether Royal alliances can have any pleasant interest in them than that any such course should be taken. We see statements in the papers that the Guards have received certain orders, and that the fleet is to come to some place or other. These, I fancy, are mostly mere feelers, it may be, or bluster intended to operate upon Austria and Prussia. I cannot understand the object of Austria and Prussia, unless it be that they are afraid of a revolution in Germany, and are therefore apps., rently taking the lead in great operations which may save them from that unpleasant change which they think may be impending. But if I were speaking to the members of her Majesty's Government I should remind them of this, that in 1853-4 there were members of that Government who talked about peace. Mr, Gladstone, in his speech in Manchester, and Lord Aberdeen were heartily wishing for peace; so, doubtless, were the Queen and the Prince ; and yet they went into war. Governments take steps which they fancy do not mean war, but they are gradually brought nearer to the verge, and then, on pretence that they have gone so far that they cannot retract, cannot honourably retract, they plunge over into the abyss, On that occasion there were members of the Cabinet who had not the slightest idea of going into war. There is a curious custom in the English Cabinet on which the public ear is not well informed, but which I will explain. When a Government is formed, you see a list of 13 members, so-called the Cabinet. They are summoned to Cabinet meetings under the name of her Ma jesty's servants ; but there is an inner Cabinet, and it is merely composed of the Prime Minister and the Fe.. reign Secretary, and occasionally one other Minister. Lord Derby was a member of Sir Robert Peel's Cabinet, and yet he knew nothing whatever of a most important memoran dum or understanding which had been drawn up, and an agreement which had been come to between Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Aberdeen, and the Emperor Nicholas of Russia. Lord Derby stated in the House of Lords that until he became Prime Minister he had never seen the memorandum or known of its existence. I have been told that there was an attempt made when Lord Derby's Government Wa3 formed to keep the whole of the interior Cabinet in the hands of himself and Lord Malmes bury, who was the Foreign Minister; but that a certain other Minister, who knew the responsibility attaching to his great position, resolved that he would have nothing to do with the responsibility of the decisions come to unless he were made acquainted with all the facts, and with everything belonging to them; and therefore the secret Cabinet of Lord Derby was composed of three and not of two members. But take the present Cabinet. I will undertake to say, from what I know of what has been done on past occasions, that of the direct foreign negotiations the transactions of foreign affairs is conducted almost entirely by Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell. Now don't let me be supposed to insinuate that Lord Palmerston—for that would be foolish—has not had a most lengthened experience in all matters connected with foreign affairs ; and don't let me be understood as saying that Lord Russell is not as anxious as I am that our foreign affairs should be transacted with honour, and that the Ca binet should do what is best for the interests of the nation. But there may be members of the Cabinet at this moment who are not aware of the steps which are taken from day to day, and of the despatches which are written, of the sugges tions which are thrown out, and the resolutions partly come to; which being once arrived at and determined by the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, the other members of the Cabinet find themselves unable to resist. If there be any members of the Cabinet who has not that secret know- ledge, and finds that matters are advancing to a fatal catas trophe—the catastrophe of war—let me beseech him, as he values the peace of his conscience during his lifetime, and his reputation with his fellowmen, which is of much less real value—let me beseech him to insist upon knowing every single thing that is done, and determine that he will not be made a partner in transactions—it may be in great error, it may be in great crimes —which he and his country for all time to come may have occasion to regret. (Cheers.) At present there is no excitement on the question between Den mark and Germany, So far as I can understand I have not seen a paper written out of London which argues in favour of war. I do not think the London papers generally, so far as I have heard, have stimulated the country to violent ac tion. But let us here, let the people everywhere have their eyes wide open at this moment, and by every means in their power let them understand that while we are willing to sympathise with any monarch, or it may be with any State, under difficulties of any kind, we consider it our duty to guard the permanent and future interests of the population of this island ; and show, also, that looking over our past history for the last 200 years we have come to the fixed determination that the Powar of England shall not be exerted, the blood of England shall not be spilled, the wealth erected by the sweat of Englishmen shall not be squandered, except it be in some great cause in which the solid and permanent interests of this country are engaged. I fear you will think I have been preaching you a long political sermon. I want this to be a free country—not to be afraid of anything that's good because they say it's French, er of something good because they say it's Ameri. can, or to stand by anything that is clearly evil because they say it's old. A very eminent writer not long ago said that England to a large extent was still, as it were, fettered in the grave clothes of the middle ages. We have a com petition to run with other nations, and most closely of all with that nation now distracted and in the throes of a great revolution. But we have within our shores, and within the limits of these islands, a great and a noble people— (cheers)—we have within us the elements of a nation far greater in the future than anything we have been in the past, even in the most glorious pages of history. We can set ourselves free from prejudices, and, as it were, from the darkness of the past. We can give to our people education. We can (pen up to them new sources of in dustry, We can reduce the expenditure of our Govern ment, We can invite another million or two within the pale of the Constitution, and, taking them by the hand, ask counsel of them that we may assist ndu oie us in divorced r h other ttchoeedf o ourp slightestu from o i mr n i con sciencesvtta h h t e a wise Government of thi s gre at nation. (Ch eers .) A ll this we can do, and all th a t it wants is, th a t i n work ing out our political p ro bl ems we should t a k e f or our moralityfoundationr eregard ardf o as rws just t io h c u a h r t wsatneadt whichseasimd moral,recommendsaon ought gh hil ttthat at guide have is life, and which we should gather for a nation as for indivi duals, from the religion which we profess. Time, persistent labour, and fidelity to the great principles which we hold and believe in —(cheers)--this will certainly give us the victory over existing evils, as similar qualities and similar conduct have given the victories I have described to you in the sketch which I have made. And for myself, and I may add for my hon. colleague, who is not hero to-night, I am sure that every time we come to Birmingham. I say it most distinctly for myself, I feel afresh how much there is in the people of this country to respect and to admire. (Cheers.) I feel that the more any man connected with public affairs, as I have been for 20 years, mingles with those who take an interest in public questions, the more y in co operatehao faith h has to l nh e 1 with hfae tetlihss good, °ln deblf through t sint r w er h nh o ge whom powerehn e e r d ; horse! ten i h t nis to be at. e tained. I can say, too, descending from the political l to the personal, that every time I h ave come to Birmingham I have had additional reason—if lam to remain in public and par- "Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself has said, , This is my own, my native land I' " (Loud cheers.) Bat now, under the feelings created by a long course of misgovernment, continued from father to son, and directed against them in their social, their political, and their religious feelings, there is scarcely an Irishman in the United States who is not the victim of any man who chooses to make political capital out of his hostility to England. (Hear, hear.) There can be no just government of Ire land until you abolish the Irish Protestant Church. (Loud and continued cheering.) There have been no feelings in the history of the world that have so stirred men's love and so stirred their hate as the feelings connected with their religious belief; and I say, if there was ever an act at once unjust and idiotic on the part of the English Govern ment, it was to continue in Ireland a Church assuming their own national religious profession, but which was a Church that never could call within its fold probably more than about one-tenth of the whole people, and which from that day to this has never been able to convert—l was going to say a single real Catholic to Protestantism, but has made Catholicism not only a belief of the people but a patriotism. (Cheers.) For every Catholic has not only had the ordinary reasons for adhering to his Church which every man has who learned the doctrines and the teachings of the Church from his mother, but he has this further reason, that the Church which is sought to be imposed upon him is imposed by another nation, and to him an alien Government ; and therefore every reverence for God and every feeling of re spect for a free man make him resolved that he will never come within the pale of such a Church as that. (Hear and cheers) I have but one more question to touch upon—for it would be wrong to pass it by at this moment—and that is the question of foreign affairs and the doctrine of non-inter vention. Now, the people of England will, nay must, be fore long make up their mind on the great question whether they will receive the doctrine of non-intervention in its in tegrity, entirety, and completeness, or whether they will re ceive it when convenient, and repudiate it when their pas sions are a little stirred. Two eminent Ministers of the pre sent Government are men—one of them certainly is a man who was in office so long ago as some years before 1 was born. He comes down, then, from a generation that has almost passed away. Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, is that man, and Lord Russell, although not so old, still goes back into that earlier time, They are both naturally—l am not imputing it to them as a wrong, because possibly it was what they could not help ; but they naturally have been saturated with the theories and doctrines which prevailed upon the question of ,intervention in foreign affairs at the beginning of this century. They may fancy now, in their old age, that that which was taught them and which was practised in their youth was right. Now, during the time of the Italian war, the war which was lately carried on between the Emperor of the French and the Emperor of Austria, which resulted in great changes in Italy, I went one day during that session of Parliament to spend an hour with Lord Aberdeen. He had been Prime Minister and Secretary for Foreign Affairs for many years ; he was a man THE SON, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 30, 1864. liamentary life—to feel grateful for the confidence which you reposed in me fire or six years ago ; for every time I come I receive additional proofs of kindness and of confi dence ; and I may say more, that I have received numerous acts of courtesy from those who d.d not feel that they were able to give me political support. (Cheers.) In looking to Birmingham, and to my duty to it, I shall take a broader view than merely to look to those who give me their votes —I shall look to its whole population, whether rich or poor, and to its whole industry and interests ; and as far as I am ablo to affect them advantageously, hoping for your co operation and assistance, you may rely upon my doing everything that lies in my power. (The hon. gentleman resumed his seat amid loud cheering.) The proceedings were shortly afterwards brought to a termination by a vote of thanks to the mayor for presiding. SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. POST.—Mr. Bright has proved himself a friend at need to the Federal cause. The advocacy of that cause has demanded the sacrifice of much which Englishmen hold in honour—the love of freedom, hatred of oppression, and contempt for hypocrisy and double-dealing; but the member for Birming ham has steadily supported a war which the public opinion of this country deplored and deprecated. Still, people were hardly prepared for the latest evidence of his infatuated attachment. It is no secret that President Lincoln's recruiting agents have for some time past been evading the provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act. The population of the Northern States has been terribly thinned by the war ; their fighting men are becoming as scarce as their gold and silver; and, now that the Germans are likely to find occupation nearer home, the so called Irish and English emigration has acquired new importance. Thetrue character of this emigra tion is pretty well understood. It is, in so far as the emigrants are concerned, a delusion and a sham. If they are exported from this county as labourers, they are imported is America as recruits for the Federal army. The want, however, is pressing; and the end, be it the Union or the emancipation of the slaves, is pleaded in justification of the means. Nevertheless, it must have required more than usual courage to flaunt the enlisting ribbons as Mr. Bright did at Birmingham. We do not say that he infringed any provision of the Foreign Enlistment Act; it is very difficult to say what is or what is not an offence under that Act. But Mr. Bright did, by his speech, endeavour to promote emigration to the Federal States of America, and enlistment in the army and navy of those States, by represen tations calculated to mislead and betray the work ing classes of this country. We are quite aware of the meaning and the gravity of this allegation ; and we undertake to prove out of Mr. Bright's own mouth, and by his own words, that he is guilty of attempting to prejudice the minds of the labouring men of this country against the institutions and laws they live under, with intent to serve the cause of the Northern States of the American Republic. We will take the intent first. There can be no doubt at all that Mr. Bright desires to raise a prejudice in the minds of the working classes against the laws and institu tions of this country. He may demur to the form of our definition of his design, but he cannot deny the intention it affirms. He may say that, believ ing these laws and institutions to be unjust and inimical to the interests of the working classes, he is entitled to denounce them as he does; but he cannot, and we apprehend will not, seek to evade the fact. The doubt is, not about the intention to disparage, but as to the intention of the disparage ment. Now, although Mr. Bright masks his de signs, till they are ripe for execution, under a cloud of rhetorical verbiage, he is a thoroughly practical man. It may be taken generally that he means more than he says. We shall not be far wrong, perhaps, if we infer that his present in tention is twofold; that he thinks he has picked up a stone which will kill two birds; and that, in initiating an agrarian agitation in this country, which will be a work of time, he can immediately render some much-required assistance to the coun try of his adoption and the cause ho has embalmed in his affections. So with this double object in view, he tells the working men that they can go over to America in twelve days; that the voyage will only cost them a few pounds; and that there are at this moment so many millions of acres of laud surveyed, mapped, and set apart for anybody that likes to settle upon them. He takes up " The Homesteads Act," as it is called, which is one of the measures President Lincoln's Government have adopted since the commencement of the civil war, no doubt to meet the exacting necessities of the situation, and proceeds to explain its beneficent provisions—" Any man or woman of twenty-one years of age, or younger, it"—and we beg particular attention to Mr. Bright's own words—" if the man happened to have been for a fortnight or a month in the service of the United States, whether in the army or navy, may go into these territories, may choose what is called a 'section,' which is one hundred and sixty acres of land, being one fourth of a square mile, and on payment of a fee of ten dollars, which is equal to £2 Eng lish, he may apply and have his land con veyed to him, for no other payment, for five years." We have not seen a copy of this act, and therefore take Mr. Bright's description of it, though the fort night or month's service is absurd on the face of it. This statement can only be read as a direct invita tion to emigrate, the advantages of enlisting in the Federal service being plainly enforced. A profes sional recruiting sergeant would probably have said —" My lads, your laws won't allow of our paying your passage, but if you have two or three pounds you can go over and enlist under our flag, and, after serving a month, for two pounds more you can have one hundred and sixty acres of land conveyed to you." Mr. Bright, as an amateur, and a member of the Peace Society, was more prosaic, but what he said was equally to the point. The solicitation was not, direct, and in so many words, but the ribbons were there all the same. Nor is this all. The Fede ral States offer, Mr. Bright says, more than land to their volunteers. They offer social equality. They offer political equality. They offer free education. Of course he said nothing about the conscription, or the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. He said nothing about the possibility, not to say the pro. , bability, of a national bankruptcy. He made no reference to the victories of the Confederate armies. Mr. Bright had the candour to hint, in passing, that there would be rough work to be done in America, but he insta n tly conc l u d e d that the state of things in this country was such as to make the temptation to leave it i rres i st ibl e. A n d to those who think as Mr. Bright thi n k s we can we l l b e • lieve that it is. To those who look at England through American spectacles we make no doubt the appearance it presents is not at all attractive. Far be it from us to say that the condition of the working classes in this country is one to be viewed with satisfaction. On the contrary, we not only admit, but urge that their condition claims the consideration of their employers, and, above all, of themselves. They can help them selves a great deal better than Mr. Bright can help them. They have now, however, heard the reforms he proposes in behalf of those who must remain where they are; and they have heard him suggest to such of them as are young, able•bodied, and fit to pass the surgeon of a Yaukee recruiting depot, that a toy country on the other side of the Atlantic is ready to receive them and provide them with scant burial on the battle field, or, if they escape, some few acres of barren land, which they will have no capital to cultivate, and which would never be sold to them for a song if it was worth keeping. We believe the great body of the men of this country will see through these hollow deceptions, recognise their untruth, and feel that they are being played with by those who would fain be regarded as their only friends. As for the Federal Government, the working men of England who violate the law of their own country by enter ing into foreign serv i ce w ill assure dly m e et with the same treatment the slaves it has emancipated are now receiving at its hands, and, we must say, will deserve no better. They will be used and thrown . away. The land they get, if they get it at all, not be worth its conveyance, and the title to it will be found to be of about the same value. TIMES.—To judge by appearances, the Austro- Prussian campaign, the object of which is to obtain that which has been already conceded, is being urged on with the utmost expedition. The only news from North Germany relates the hurrying for• ward of troops and stores, the mixed feelings with which the Germans see their champions pass, and the speculations as to the resistance which the Danes will offer to the invasion. It depends on the resolu tions adopted by the two Governments during the next few days whether blood shall be shed in Schles wig and another period of European trouble begun. Of the Councils of Vienna it is difficult to speak. The Government there is more independent, and its acts accordingly represent more nearly the designs of the person in power than is the case at Berlin. But still there is reason to believe that the will ingness to engage in this hazardous enterprise is becoming less with increase of reflection. Austria cannot but be aware of the satisfaction with which the prospect of war has been viewed by the re volutionary party in Europe, and the thinking politicians of the Empire are not reassured by the unwillingness of France to interfere actively at this period of the dispute. Though the Austrian troops are being sent in large numbers northward, it is probable that the readiness of the Vienna Govern ment in the cause is even less than is attributed to it by the general suspicions of Germany. At Berlin the King and his Ministers have got rid of the Chamber, which had lately transferred its sympa thies from a policy of economy to one of conquest ; and the King, M. Von I3ismark, and his colleagues are now able to act more nearly as their own judg ments prompt them. Unfortunately it may prove that there is a divided opinion, and that the more warlike policy may recommend itself to the Sove reign, who has caught something of the spirit which animates his Royal brethren. It is quite possible that there exists a section of the Cabinet anxious to repudiate altogether the Treaty of 1852, and to join the minor States in depriving the King of Denmark of the southern por tion of his dominions. It may also be that the King inclines to this view. Bat it is hardly likely to prevail, as the opinions which 111. von Bismark is supposed to hold have been made the basis of the Prussian representations to foreign Powers, and to them the Government is pledged. Prussia, according to its own diplomatic statements, enters Schleswig only to exact a material guarantee, and not for the purpose of depriving the Danish King of any portion of his dominions, since the Berlin Government upholds the treaty and is ready to recognise King Christian when he has made proper reparation for the faults of his predecessor. Neutral Powers are asked to believe that Prussia, in fact, only wants an opportunity of enforcing the Treaty without outraging German feeling, and that she hopes to find it by taking possession of Schles wig, and satisfying German pride by a victory over a stubborn enemy. An interference is deprecated on the ground that Prussia and Austria will do no thing that Europe can disapprove, if they are left to themselves ; but that if opposition is attempted and the struggle prolonged, the obstinacy of Germany will be engaged in the quarrel, and the occu. pation will be perforce converted into conquest. It is in such circumstances as these, and dealing with such opponents, that the British Government has had to direct its course during the last few weeks. No wonder that as the crisis draws nigh Cabinet meetings succeed each other : there was one yesterday ; there is to be one to-day ; and there will certainly be no failure in the efforts of the Government to bring about a peaceful solution if it be possible. But, indeed, it is not easy to see what more remains for us to do. We have engaged the Danes to concede all that their enemies have ever asked or expected. We have almost pledged our selves that they shall give up the November Con stitution. We have, on the other hand, remon strated with the aggressors in terms so strong that no diplomatic representations can add to them or make more fully known the opinions of this Go vernment and nation. In this state of things it is difficult to do more than to leave the considerations we have advanced to have their effect on the moves of the two German States, trusting that they will be convinced of the evil consequences which must very soon follow the execution of their designs. The state of affairs is simply this, that France and Russia, though entirely agreeing with the view England has taken, decline to inter fere further, and leave to this country the task of opposing if advisable the action of the German Powers. Whether this is a case in which our honour and interests are so much concerned as to require us to proceed further than mere remonstrances, is a question on which opinions are likely to differ, and happily the meeting of Parliament in a few days will enable the judgment of the country to be ex pressed on a matter of so much importance. Of the general sympathy of the House with the little State which is the object of the aggression there can be ❑o doubt, but the practical case is whether Eng land can do more in support of the Treaty of 1852 than remonstrate with those whose conduct directly tends to a breach of it. By Thursday ❑ext the Government will no doubt be able to describe to Parliament the efforts they have made to prevent the shedding of blood in Schleswig, and what course they think it necessary to follow here after. In the meantime the matter approaches its solution, either warlike or peaceful, on the Conti nent. If at the eleventh hour the two Powers think it best to take the advice which has been so gene rally given them, the dispute between Germany and Denmark can be quietly and. effectually arranged with the same sanctions as accompanied the Treaty of 1852. If, on the contrary, they persevere in their warlike policy, it may be that the first days of the meeting of Parliament in England will be contem poraneous with some obstinate fighting along the Danish line of defence, in which it may be that the weaker party will be Ole to inflict on the aggres sors defeat and humiliatiGP, and gain for themselves a still wider sympathy. LAW INTELLIGENCE.--(Jan, 29.) COURT OF DIVORCE. (Before the Judge Ordinary.) HALL V. HALL. Emily Hall prayed for a dissolution of her mar riage with Samuel Hall on the ground of adultery, coupled with cruelty. The respondent pleaded a denial of both the charges, and condonation. The Queen's Advocate and Mr. Hannen appeared for the petitioner ; Dr. Spinks for the respondent. The Queen's Advocate stated that the petitioner was the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Allhusen, of Elswick-hall, near Newcastle-upon- Tyne. The respondent was the son of a clergyman, and his family lived at Terrington, in Yorkshire. He was formerly a lieutenant in the 12th Regiment. He had always been addicted to excessive drinking, and this unfortunate propensity was the main cause of the misery which followed the marriage. After the marriage, which took place in October, 1860, Mr. and Mrs. Hall lived together, first at Torquay, then at Plymouth, and then at Clonmel. They afterwards made a tour in Normandy, stayed for some time in Paris, and then returned to Yorkshire. There were two children, of whom one was living. The cohibitation continued until March, 1863, and during the whole of that period the respondent treated his wife with great cruelty. She had on some occasions been obliged to have persons in the house to protect her, and she had more than once left him, but had returned upon his promises of amend ment. She finally separated from him in March, 1863, and she afterwards discovered that he bid frequently been guilty of adultery during their cohabitation. Mrs. Hail stated that about six weeks after the marriage she noticed a change in her husband's con duct. He tried to alarm her by saying that he had been married before, and his first wife was living. He took to drinking to excess. In December, 1860, at Plymouth, he one day ordered a servant to leave the room. She told him to stay. He then seized her arm, and took up a tableknife, and she escaped from him and got out of the room. He retired from the army. In 1861 they went to Normandy. When they were at Caen he one day said that everything was to be packed up and they would be off to Paris that night. She said she was not well enough to do the packing, but he insisted, and he was so violent that she yielded. She fainted twice while she was doing the packing. Before she had finished he called her into the next room, where she was sitting, and when she went in he threw a travelling rag at her. She went out of the room, and he called her in a second time ; he then threw a large tin lucifer matchbox at her, and it struck her under the eye. He threw it without saying a word. While they were staying in Paris he scarcely ever dined at home, and he used to stay out until 5 or 6 o'clock in the morn ing. He very often asked for poached eggs after he came home. On one occasion when he came home at 4 in the morning, he told her to get up and sit with him while he was eating the eggs. She got up, and the servant, John Kelly, cooked the eggs over a charcoal fire, and he ate them. When he had finished he knocked over the table and threw the plates and dishes on the floor. He was partly intoxicated. She ran out of the room, and stayed upon the com mon staircase until he was quiet. When she went back into the room he took up some pieces of red hot charcoal in a pair of French tongs, and was in the act of throwing it at her, when Kelly seized his arm and prevented him. She ran upstairs and stayed upon the landing for about two hours, and then went down into the drawing-room. She told him she could not bear his ill-treatment, and she must go home. He said she could have a separate room, and she had one, but he was never out of it, so that she was no better off. On one occasion he was kicking her clothes about, and ho gave her a kick on the leg which bruised her very much and lamed her for a fewdaya. From Paris they went to Switzerland, and then to London, and then back to Yorkshire. In August, 1861, they were staying at Elswick. He was perpetually getting tipsy, and he said he was not fit to be a married man, and proposed a separation. He left her to go to America, but he came back in a day or two before he got to Liverpool, begged her forgiveness, and promised that he would never drink again. In March, 1862, they went to live in a furnished house at Thorp grange, near Barnard , castle, and they stayed there until March, 1863. At 2 o'clock on the morning after or where their rb a e r hd r i ,u v sa a bn l ad t n h sd e h l e a w n wa d es l n. a t d landlady, h Aw e l nr6 t told him twhee kj h call ca h hl e a e n d d hbeertt,earngdo whent to bed,they got sheand into h wen t t eb edm, upstairs. roo He asked followed h er how she dared go into the kitchen, and struck her on the arm. Ho then put his hack against the door, she rang the bell, and he seized a hyacinth glass which was on the chimney-piece and was in the act of throwing it at her, when the servant came into the room and stopped him. She then escaped from the room. He frequently threatened her with the poker or a knife. She wrote to her family, and an arrangement was made that a man should be engaged to attend him and to protect her from his violence, Hi s h a bi ts of intoxication continued, and he was very violent when he was intoxicated. In March, 1863, they removed to' Walshford, and his attendants l e ft hi m . When they arrived at Walsh ford h e walked about the room and said that now t f hey had a house to themselves he would shoot her ishe did not obey him in everything, but he thought the quickest way would be to cut her throat, He —....---.—,.—...--- then looked out of the window, and said it se eln i e d a , high enough and he would dash her out. Sh e 6 , 5 j11 ' I don't care if you do cut my throat, for yoti„" b " e put an end to a miserable lite, but yotl W i " o f hanged." He said, " Oh, no one would th i n g a hanging me, for I am a lunatic. I hale,,haShe keeper, and they would bring me in insane. t o then left him and went to Elswick. H e Wrc)-et to her, asking her to return, and she didturn on re 1 3 0. 14th of March. The next day at d i n ner time Sou took up a knife and said, "I will soon Vi iell „ ai ne off," passed it across his own throat, and then "'She towards her, and she ran out of the room. ~,,u t went from the house and consulted a doctor flu' d ,,, getting away her baby, which was in his nos'custody She went back to him to Walshford, obtained a session of the baby, and immediat ely li .ds with it while he was asleep, and never w a fte eut rvi'' returned to him. t 11 .5 ' In answer to questions put by the Cour , ... s . Hall said that the men who attended upon her au ete band were in the house several weeks. Tb e L sc a nd there with his consent. All the Money that sh e And her husband lived upon was kept at a bane, aid she drew checks for it as it was wanted. I le p c . not draw checks, and he was kept without tuli3,„ '1 at arrangement was made with his conse J4ntl'. of it money was settled to her separate use. came from her friends and half from his. , ~,e of The petitioner's evidence as to tbeasenwettiTt.,ol' the cruelty was corroborated by Mrs. i l landlady of the house at Thorp-grang e, and 1 1 J ~e a „ Kelly, who had lived for some time in their sercitly, They said they looked upon Mr. Ha ll as Peri° sane. fore Elizabeth Blake, who had known Mr. Sail bea t d t , his marriage, proved that he had committed a ter with her in London, in Au 1862 • gus t, ,„ages t a In the course of the case a question was , a,° ;f. it by the Court as to what would be the result •on should appear upon the evidence that the Ol ds , s. nt was in such a state of mind as not to be re 5 P o f ible fr his actions at the ime wh the la e cruelt o were committed. h Itt wa s conte en ta t queens Advocate that, even if it should t ur etate that the respondent had occasionally been in reed habits,ofisanit, caused by his inmperate dieslPfuee th y e Court would not on that grouadAre•sers relief, especially as the respondent an d had his °Lill not set up that defence. Dr. Spinks did not cross-examine w itnes ses th e .leste as to the charges of adultery and cruelty, 5 1114 ,,"; had that the respondent would not be called. 5 8 l '' left the country. At the close of the case, , 4 , coal' His Lordship said it was impossible no t wee miserate the position in which the petitioeerioe. But the Court could not avoid taking placed and to desire to give her relief if P° B f s io nie parts of the evidence, from which it Was t° been treateda s by those about him as person w ho h ° „,, Wa oce r responsible for his actions. He we'll° . be dt ° the evidence and consider whether it estabibe. 1 s ib e• his satisfaction that the respondent was resP° ° . , i De If he then entertained ' any doubt on the q uest° n . of P r " would give the petitioner an o ortunitY A Dee during further evidence, such as the reeP en ,i e at° notice °be in. t medical advisers or the men who had beea. l- 1 ,0 end . ance on him, for the purpose of establislitag sanity. ......... COUNTRY MARKETS. LIVERP 0 0 L--FRIDAY. tor e "' trade ale There was a moderate attendance of the „„ opec a o and but a small business was done in whe al raise e .,;•••, tion. Flour dull, and decidedly lower to sell. 1, jot ," very dull, and might be bought 3d per qr 11 11 ,c le t. jjEtri e d i day's currencies. Oats and oatmeal still V ie beans, and peas unchanged. 00 WAKEFFIELD—FRIDAS. 403004,60 t ri Wheat was in good supply to day. Great . c e sof abe .4 the part of holders, but a d u ll trade, and the P A l a te r Friday cannot be excee ed. Barley quiet, 'l3' scarcely maintained. Other articles unaltered. Averages for the week : 01 Wheat 1,093 qrs., _..... . Rye ........ s 0 Beans ........ . Peas .... ....... 1 * Oi i Oats l3B ........ ‘, 2 1 bi d Barley 754 ........ 0" m oe , White wheatB, T4201.811,t01F403R5;Dr—edF,1136m0.4.?:0. 40c0 troer32 3 , 6 ll,erper gr. Barley, malting, 34s to 36 8 ; grinding - , 2,8 4 6 0 to "- Oats, Oats, 18s to 248 per 24 stone. Beans, old, qr. ; new, 3Gs to —s. LINCOLN.—FRIDAY. market ttYato A fair quantity of wheat on offer at our ta 3.0 and prices declined a shade. A; g ,00t t oo White wheat new, 428 to 40e Barley, grinu- 11 - * . Oi- c) 01 Red do. 36s to 40s Oats, old, .. ...... 19 No Old white —B to -9 New:do .......... 353 t° .35,4 Red do. —s to —s I Beans.. ......... . 3 0 to Barley, malting 35s to 388 1 Beans, new. .... R ed CORK—FRIDAY. r aja ' 5 1 The following were the quotations this nto bo lell CO wheat, 8s Od to 8s 10d ; white, 8s Od to, 9s 8d ; o* o 6cl to 88 Od ; oats, 4s 10d to 6s 2d ; black dc't 5s 3d. COAL Primo of Coal per Ton a' s. d. Buddle'sWest Hartley 14 9 Byass's Bebside West Hartley l4 9 Lambert's West Hart- - ley - 14 6 Walker Primrose 14 0 Cowpen Hartley.. l4 9 Hastings Hartley l4 9 Holywell 18 0 Wylam 17 6 West Wylam.. ..... l6 9 Eden Main 18 6 West Hartley l4 9 rar.field Moor 15 6 Davison's West Hart- MARKET. t the close of the norite' Walls End. A.ij ,IS g Heugh Hall .... •.." ',15 g K elloe ......... • %IS 6 South Kelloe. ..... '',l9 9 Hartlepool ........ 19 6 East Hartlep ool. •• " 0 North Hartlepool...o .19 0 Braddyll's Hetton• • ' IS 0 T uns tall .......... ' 0 Haswell ........ •• • , 2,0 0 Hetton ............ 0 South Hetton ...... • :19 9 Caradoc ......... IS 0 Casco P ........... • • ••• i s 6 Framwellgato .... r:,1 9 3 Trimdon HartlePO' ' , 16 9 James ........ •• " 9 Acorn Close ........ 0 Eden .......... •• '' 0 West Byron. , • • •• Wharucliffe. •• • " 1' 9 Ridde11....... sdl ; e mdoslnlo. _ ..t .. .. . t . ley 15 3 Ellison Main Steam 15 0 Walls End. Byron 13 0 Gosforth l7 9 Harton 17 0 KeiperGrange 18 6 Ships at market, Foreign Mail Packet US MAILS v l i L a T so D ut U b E arn .l ptou..,:: ::f e l ~s 1 1; Australia and Mauritius, via Marseilles .."' *y e t,. ; ' Brazil and Cape Verds, by British pac!te . ,,t.',;; J :.:.l.. b. '„, Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. lie . „' - , o toa'v' :b. 11-"' China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southall . - via Maree ille .. 1. Falkland Islands• ... I" ....... 1. Gibraltar, via Southampton .. '''''''''''''''''' .'' ' . 'eld'i' ' 3 ' India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via SouthaniP-°ll..'feb' 11. India (Bombay), via Southamp v t i o a n 3 '' ''''' e ' i ' lle '' ' ' ' " feeb b li. : 3: via Marseilles ......... : • ot f: e e p, 1. ..... ‘ P ortug—al. ... ......................... • o• Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton .. ,Ye 3. via Marseilles ....... .fgb. Newfoundland .............. ' 3 ....................... ...web. Oporto and Vigo .. U. S. and British N. America, by Brit. pa.L ° t. . D. by 11. S. P ack° It .. Y eb' 1 (4 W.C. of Africa, Madeira and TbYenCeralitfaed•r••P•a•c. .. Tet i) ~ 1 1‘ , Bahamas, via New York' ..................... 'f e . Mexico. All parts of West Indies, including ....... 1 e 'j nd British , ... California.. ........ Colunill••••'" . . _______-------pin rioriffi.ellidzi:g: [AnvEnnsEmnx-r.l—Holloway's - -- --s ction, 9 / - t iso e i in the side, oppression of the chest aP by the ore ( ' and chronic coughs, are notably alleviated otert , of d for these purifying and regulating pills. Mr. . 11 _d s ale r e Alicl i George-square, Liverpool, states that be a lla ‘. , o o we, oe several years from an excruciating stitch i r` .. .' 4 i e yo.„ uo ca the most eminent of the faculty failed tow an o tecl sid `re various suggestions of friends were Ilk.' the red th° commended dbeednenfiotiltoiwilayon,se pills,more wfohriteuhnadteaiityhwdativisini,s-pohlierteds pain, and ultimately banished it entirely'. ', O the acted selected from thousands, which should proveledical Al that these pills will restore health after all "` ~,, seemed to be fruitlessly exhausted. --- _____- ------"--- ___-----_ Births. , O W BETRELL.—On the 28th inst., at 4, StanhopePl; sos. _ park, the wife of the Hon. Slingsby I3othell, °, c o 03° BLOMFIELD.—On the 29th inst., at 3, Finsbury•eir ' , c wife of the Rev. F. G. Blorafield, of a daughter' opal' ADBY.— On the 28th inst., at Lawn Cottage' 11°3' ," Mrs. Charles Cadby, of a son. e t. P ' - FILGATE.—On the 28th inst., at 48, Alberoarle-Fq-Otte wife of T. Macartney Filgate, Esq., Captain 1g sars, of a son. Git s l ots v ,e E p s hi. Marriages. , I $00C.,1; Robert Tol l T URNER- On It r Graves, daughtero of n the c Charlton a 2 l TottofhntihnHesotit.u,saeevy.3ansvoT pit., 'B, vicar of Banwell. , tia gf lr A l vlt lwriTil,tisi.(l,coriert HEDGES —CLARE.—On the 28th inst., at P 5 . --t f joiv-,, Hedges, Esq., Chesham, Bucks, John Cooper, the oldest 80 0 ° i Jo>" Clare, Esq., of The Grove. b to Elizabeth, younwer daughter 0 D ea ths. tt a ea BARDGF ,TT.—At Leyton, E ssex, William Dar (lsB ' 70. vo tOlt BUMSTED.—On the 29th inst., at Nolland-ro4(cii' 5 0 ,1 5 Mr. Joseph Bumsted, of the Bank of Engitt u , - P4' , BUTCHER.-012 0- ot Islington, aged 42. St liddlese DPNYER the 27th inst., Robert AL Butcller' .—On ithe 25th inst., at Staines, lk D i t iclV mund Denyer, aged 66. DUROUR heath, Mrs. DUFOUre, aged 85. "ck-g4r"flit: PuuttAN.—On the 29th inst., at 23, Warw.!, b eep E.—On the 28th inst., at her residence, , Kensington, James Henry Putman lii,e.mMp.'lse,l;lNge.d. second son of John iullruatitief, (7;4118 All° tio ier sham, Annabella Alcune, G e or WARDE —On the 28th lust , at -Woodside Lcdgifi'sirilije' ILA. 'wife of Major- Uy London : i'rinz , ed and Pl'qlshe—d. o S f t Strand, , 11 1 2 ; the Precinct the laiddleßa--attlrday, January 30, 1t3 64 . rninotteor; attiler 3'1?v0571:1 4:°°'l thThe l A'p e e 66.,5j 1, 4 't,1411