The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-04-15 00:00:00

THE HON. AIIBERON HERBERT AT

NOTTINGHAM,

The following extractg are from the lion. A.
Herbert's 'lgen!), delivered at Ncttingham last week,
and are taken from the Nottingham Dail y Guardian :
lin Wednesday evening, in hut week, the Hon. Anberon
Ilerbert attended a meeting of his constituents in the Ex-
change-hall, Nottingham, with the object of explaining his
vote on the question of a dowry to Princess Louise. There
was a large attendance, and on the platform was a number
of ladies. Mr. W. G. Ward presided. When the hon. member
appeared on the platform, he was received with a good deal
of cheering and some signs of disapprobation. A few of the
Sneinton Market division were present, and one of them, a
rough-looking youth, raised the red flag of Republicanism
amid some cheering. A man near the platform then called
for three groans for all dowries, and afterwards asked for
three cheers for a Republic, which were given with consider-
able rest by a number of persons near the platform. Soon
after this some person at the further end of the room called
for three cheers for Mr. Herbert. Cheers and some groans
followed, but for the next sentiment, "lhree Cheers for
Taylor and Fawcett," there was a hearty response. Three
groans for "Old Seely' followed, but not very heartily, and
• call for Lord Lorne" met with a similar reception-

Attar a few introductory remarks from the Chairman,
The lion. A. Herbert, who was received with mingled
cheers and groans, said,—l hope that you think I have done
," We don't," "No more dowries," groans and
uproar ; It will be better if you will kindly wait for the end
of the sentence. ,Cheers I say I hope you will think that
I have done right in keeping the promise that I made to you
and in coming to speak to you to-night on the subject o!
Princess Louise's dowry. Applause)( .... I am going now
very briefly to consider two arguments which were used by
many of my friends against the granting of the dowry. One
was what I will call the Parliamentary argument—the
argument used in Parliament—and the other was that which
was used outside. It was said in Parliament that we ought
not to grant the dowry to this Princess, bemuse dowries had
only been given to compensate for what were called poli-
tical marriages, that is to say, that when • Princess was
married to • foreign Prince her own tastes and incline-
HODS were not consulted. It was, in short, • political
marriage, and, therefore, this sum of money was given to her
as compensation for that happineu which it might be cup-
posed she would lose by contracting such • marriage. (" Oh,"
and "Shame.") I ask myself, how would such • plan work?
nd I say that if we were to grant dowries only to our prin.
gasses for political marriages, the tendency of our doing so
would be to encourage them to form those bad, unnatural,
and, to my mind, hateful marriages, and that we should
punish them or tine them for contracting a reasonable,
sensible, and natural marriage. Hear, Imar There was
another argument used outside Parliament, and that amt.
ment WM this, that we ought not to make any national pay-
ment except In return for work done and services rendered.
Loud applause) I do not think I am very far wrong when I
say that that is the reason which generally Ma the mind of
this meeting. (" It is," and cheers. I have no hesitation In
saying that !accept and agree with that principle. (A Voice..—
'Then why not act upon It?" I will explain. I think the
pzirciple is • right and • Just principle. I think it is one
necessary for the country to adopt, and I think a great deal
of harm has happened becense we have neglected that prin-
ciple, but I was unwilling, and I am unwilling, to apply that
principle during the lifetime of this Queen, " Oh, oh,"
and interruption. I want your attention for one minute If
you will kindly given to me. I say I was unwilling to apply
that principle during the lifetime of this Queen, to her or
to her children. (Uproar and "Turn him out." A voice.—
. That Li WOMil WA ; " and another, rooltalas.•)

do not agree with my friend. Ido not think the Queen Is
very poor I think she has a very large payment, indessel,
Made to her by this country, but it 11w arrangement-1 Will ,
speak My mind quite openly to you—it II an srraegemesl
which I. for one, will not disturb during her lifetime. ;
Cheers) I consider that we are absotutely free to make ,
Whatever arrangement we like with him or her who succeede
Her Majesty. Cheer.. I reject altogether the theory that
the Crown hands are private property. (Applause I hold
that they are the property of the tattoo loud cheers, sad •
Voice, "So Is all the land " , and I hold that we may make
whatever bargain we choose hereafter with that person
whom we mate the chief officer of this country. lint before
1 consider that future, which I 'hall conelder (acne minute, I
want to ray this to yiel, that fur myself, audi know not how
many may abase the same reeling. I have, and I am glad to
express it to you, a feeling of gratitude teweras this
Q'leetl herself. (Cheers.) I have It for two reason., first
of all because the influence of her reign has been a good
.1 a pore influence, and secondly, because I know of
no other Xing or Queen in history who has aciamted as
she has with the same heartiness and the same loyalty (a
Volce—" fhe money." Cheers and laughter, —hear the
one of the sentence—accepted, I say, In such a way those
great popular changes, those great revolutions which have
I placed the power in the hands of the people. 1 feel grate-
In! to her for her conduct in that matter. ,Cheers.) Now
my friends, let us Ink a little forward. 1 want to look at
wind Comes after. There are some of us, perk.., who will
draw a long breath about that word "altar.' It is rather
a tangerine subject fur conversation. Shall we drop off
ma conversation here 7 NO, no''" do on '') Should
we then have a little glimpse at the future, or shall we break
up our meetleg and go home early to bed, and ask our good
lades to make us some gruel A Voice.—" There Is rather too
much of that," and laughter), and avoid a dangerous subject
Ilk. this ( ' No, no!" "We want it") I agree with my
friend, we had better loot forward. We won't be like chil-
dren who are afraid of going ups dark lane betakele ft is said
thew Is a Wiest at the end of It. Cheers if we are to look
forvard we had better ask what is our present position Our
preient position Is this, as 1 understand It, and it seems to
me a great misfortune, that our present system does not allow
us to haves voice and a choice as to who is to step Into the
line place at the head of this nation. (lear, hear) We live
In caps in which we have learnt to accept nothing unless we
can reconctle it to sober reason .4 to clear Intelli-
gence, and I for one will take this opportunity of stating
that I think It a great nitsfortune that there should
exist In this country no guarantee whatsoever that we shall
no; have an extravagant, idle, and a corrupt Court (cheers):
we possess no guarantee that a person rho is not utterly
nulit shall not be placed In the first place we have to give.
Against violnuce, or against unreason, or against disorder,
there is only one barrier, and that is the Intelligence and
right feeling of the people themselves. (Cheers.) To that I
will trust ; on that I will put my reliance; and when that
tails us Hod help us all, for there is nothing left. (Cheers )
shall now venture very shortly to point out to you some of
the advantages that would roman from a change in our con-
stitutional system. I think that if the change should take
the form of a Commonwealth or a Republic we should gala
• much greater impulse with real evils that exist among us.
I think that we should gets great increase of force and energy
to deal with that poverty and that crime, an 1 that want
which are a great burden to this nation and 1 say that for
this reason, because 1 think that men's millets weed he carried
in a simpler sod more straightforward direction. What I
notice now is this—that much of the force which exists in
this nation In wasted. We are all broken up into partlea
There Is a party which wants to establish and maintain
the Church. A Voice.—" Dawn with it," and uproar. , And
there is a party which wants to remove that Established
Church. (Cheer.) There Is a party which wants to remove
the Home of Lords cheers), and there Is a party which
want. it. There is a party which wants to pre-
serve the monarchy—A V Ace.—And the Duke of Cam-
bridgel—and, as the gentleman suggested, there is • very
strong party which wants to preserve the Duke of Cam-
bridge. (" Hear, hear," atd laughter., hut what I want
to notice to you is this—thst while we are thus split up into
parties, while we have all these differences, practical
political development among us and the real work of the
country cannot be done. I believe the real work of politics
Is to take out of our sycem all these unnecessary causes
of difference, and to give us a !simpler system, so that
we may be united together, and, merging all these
parties and dimension., set ourselves to do the one
thing which la needful—to Improve the moral and social
condition of the people. !cheers.; 1 cannot help also
noticing that any court system prevents our looking
up to a standard of really simple and Industrial life. To my
mina, simplicity of life seems to lee very closely allied to
nobleness of life, and when you come to the pageantry and
the outward show and glitter surrounding Court Me, (think
you mislead the mind of the nation and carry It in • wrong
dlrectlon. I never can take up our newspapers and read
those wonderful descriptions which sometimes fill whole
columns, giving the names of perilous attending some great
ball or some grand reception—'A % oice—" At whose ex-
pense " —and telling us the kinds of dress worn on those oc-
casions—l say I never can read such—may I say rubbish
tcheere)--without feeling that there is a fountain of folly
playing among us, making MI more foolish than we need
necessarily be. What we want is to bring out the earnest
, and serious thought that is within this nation, and to put
; before it great and worthy objects to be achieved we want
' to teach every class In this nation that life does not consist
In the dress which a man weare, or the carriage in which he
rides, or the house in which he lives, but that life in its noblest
sense consists In that which he thinks, and that which he
really is. )Cheers . .. . In the Let few words I have
' to say let me observe that If you do wish to see this
great change brought about in this country, my advice is,
let us work for it in that spirit which has distinguished
&WWI revolutions as against revolutions In other counties..
(A beige.—" Will you work for It)") Let us have self-con-
' trol ; let us use the weapons of reason and argument , let us
advance it by moral force, and avold (toile; anything which
can shock those unnecessarily who differ from us. (Hear.)
Let us even try to avoid the use of harsh and bitter express-
sloes. (Cheers. The longer I live the more 1 feel that
violence paver works succeest ally to the end. (Cheers.;
When I look across at the picture France presents at the
present time, I see something which Is unutterably bad, and
that which makes the picture so sad to my mind is this—that,
unfortunately. all parties In that country seem to me to be
ready to have recourse to violence. Cheers;, and a voice
.• They are obliged.") What I believe is this—that no victory
won by violence can last. What violence crowns toolay
violence will discrown to-morrow. (Cheers) Violence
always contain. within Heidi the seed of its own dream°.
Mon. I can only say that to me the only bright spot I
can eve in thl, world of cure, among much that Is dark and
painful, LB the superiority of moral force. (Cheers be-
Heve.thai If we are backed by moral force we must win at the
last hear, hear,; and I no more believe that those things
which arose dear to us, those things we are striving for,
....i.e.... et nee
actions—viz, that we should bring about the perfect a eve op-
meat of our people, and raise them to that level that they
could give the freest submission In themselves naturally to
the great moral laws, that they should have in their hearts a
passionate enthusiasm for, and devotion to, the great prin-
ciples of justice and right-1 say I believe we can never bring
about that state of things until we have pot violence alto-
gether away from on, as I believe that the herb can never
shoot or the flower blossom on the earth, yield fruit and
Increase, while the wild fury of the whirlwind is beating
upon us. (Cheers ) Therefore, let us light this battle with
the weapons of reason and argument let us have the
strongest and most unfaltering faith that there Is nothing In
this wide world to resist moral force. (Cheers.)