The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-01 00:00:00

LORD HARTINGTON AND MR. BRIGHT
AT MANCHESTER.

An enormous Liberal gathering took place in the Pomona
Gardena at Minchester last Saturday, representatives of all
the Liberal Assoc'Mims in North-east and South-east Lan-
cashire heir g present.
Mr. R. N. Philips, M.P., prealded, and a resolution was
I passed condemning the Governmont for its neglect of
necessary domestic legislation, for the arta,gant, pretentious
duplicity and incompetence of its foreign policy; for its
studied evasion of Parliamentary counsels and control; and
for a financial cowardice which has sought refuge in debt
from the burdens of its extravagance.
The Marquis of Hartington, in a speech of considerable
length, proceeded to institute a contrast between the
present anti the late aciministrations, sod declared that when
the time came the Linerals would not he afraid to appeal
to the country upon the ground of any comparison that may
be made. The noble Marquis said :
We have not broe;ht forward our accusations and our
indictments against the Government for the sake of
raising a party cry, or securing support to a discredited
faction et the next election. We have impugned
the policy of the Government because we believed in
our hearts that it was one which was unnecessary in
the interests of the nation, and one which was calcu-
lated to imperil some of the best interests of the
country. (Cheers.) We have not seen any reason to
withdraw from the indictment, and the sooner that
challenge is offered to us the better. (Cheers.) At all
events, whatever may be the result of the next elec-
tion, it cannot fail to bring great relief to those who,
like many of those by whom lam surrounded, feel
a grave and heavy responsibility. (Hear, hear.)
We have been engaged during the last three
or four years in waging in Parliament an unequal con-
test. We have been uniformly voted down; we have
felt that a greet' responsibility rested upon us for
much that wee being done, and that mush that we
disapproved might possibly be attributed to short-
comings on our part. But when once the opinion of
the country has been taken, if it be—as we confidently
hope and believe it will be—a verdict in our favour
(cheers), then that undoubtedly will be the greatest
, and the highest gain to which we can look. But if, on
the other hand, the verdict be against us ("No ")
great load of responsibility will be taken from the
shoulders of your Liberal representatives—when the
country has taken upon itself, as it never has yet done
(hear, hear), the responsibility for those acts and for that
policy which have been and are being practised in its
name. (Cheers.) When the moment comes we shall
not be afraid to appeal to the country upon the ground
of any comparison that may be made between the
acts of the late Liberal Adminietration aied the late
Liberal Parliament and the acts of the present Ad-
ministration and the present Parliament. (Cheers.)
We shall remind the country that five years ago, when
we resigned the reins of office, we left peace abroad
and contentment at home. (Cheers.) We left trade
and manufactures flourishing, we left the revenue
daily increasing—increasing at a far greater rats than
the expenditure of the country. Since tho advent of
the present Administration we have had apprehensions
of war in Europe; we have had actual and unnecessary
war in Asia and Africa, (Cheers.) Trade and industry
have been at a standstill. Confidence is gone—(hear,
hear)—the burdens of the people have been increased
—(hear, hear)—and as to the finance of the country,
there are no words of mine which can adequately de-
scribe the condition in which it hats iunk. (Cheers.)
It is a degradation of the term " finance " to call
the administration of your reVennes by the present
Government by that name. (Cheers.) If the finance
of the Conservative Government deserves to be called
finance, then the reckless expenditure of every spend-
thrift who spends large revenues without knowing
from what source the money is to come—then that
course, I say, is equally woethy of the term "Ilnance."
(Cheers.) I need not remind you that slris left a surplus
of five millions—(boar, hear)—and that everything
which the Government has done in the way of the
reduction of debt and of the relief of the burdens of the
people has been done by means, and solely by the
moans, of that surplus which was left to them by the
Liberal Government. Since then the burdens of thb
people have been increased, and althoneh it *all an-
nounced as part of the policy of a CohaerVative Govern-
ment to make more regthar and more consistent
efforts for the reduttion of the National Debt, those
effort,' and that pretentious policy have so completely
failed that during the last three years the debt of the
country has actually increased, and there are at this
moment large liabilities outstanding, which we have
not the slightest idea how the Government is to meet.
(Cheers.) If the foreign policy of the Government has
been so successful as We are asked to adMit that it has
been, surely we ought to see come res Ult. When the
country is involved in scar, or under the apprehension
of war, it is natural that internal affairs should be neg-
lected and should attract lass attention. But when we are
told that he foreign policy of the Government has not
only been a wise one, but that it has alto been successful,
than we expect to see some of the results which would
naturally flow from a wise and alto a auccessful foeeign
policy. We should expect that the country *thild be
invited and would be found ready to rieslontl.to the
invitation to devote itself calmly seed tranquilly to the
consideration of internal reform. But what have this
Government—what hare the Conservative supporters
of thie Government—to offer you on the subject of
internal reform? What is their domestic policy ?
What are their views on the question of Parliamentary
reform? What are their views upon the depressed
condition of the agricultural interest, alid I may add,
the depressed condition of every other interest? (Hear,
hear.) What are their views upon the financial ctn.
dition into which they have brought the country?
Gentlemen, when this Government speaks of internal
policy they have one, Bed only one, answer to
make to us. When they refer to domestic affairs their
one and sole resource is to point to the alleged division
which exists on questions of domeatic interests in the
Liberal party. Well, I have always admitted the
existence and the necessity of the existence of
differences of opinion in the Liberal party, but those
differences are now urged against us as a reproach,
when, after all, they are nothing but a necessity a our
existence ; and they are not only urged egnitiet use as a
reproach, but they ere turned by our opponents to a.
more useful purpose—the purpose of diverting the at-
tention of the peophe of the country from those sub-
jects on which the Liberal party are aereed to those
others upon which more or lees difference of opinion
exists. . .

His lordship concluded a vigorous tpeech by
urging upon his audience not to let their enthusiesM
die out, but to occupy the interval which Win elapse
before the general election in the ardr,orm but necessary
duties of preparation and crganit afion, and resumed
hie seat amid loud cheerr,
When Mr. Bright rest to address the meeting, the cheer-
ing was deatenin. The audience rose, too, and the band
played the actotnpaniment to a verse of "The Fine old
English Gentleman," which was sung apparently by
thousands. Afterwards the cheering was renewed atd toe-
t tined with unremitting ardour. air. Bright, *.Vho spoke for
exactly an hour, proceeded to dwell :Icon Lord Salisbury's
speech at the Manchester Chatuter of Commerce, and after
summarising the beneficial results of a free trade policy,
glanced at the cle.r_na of the Liberal party to the support of
the people. Mo characterised the policy of the Conservative
Ministry as one that may lend a seeming glory to the Crown,
sal may give scope for patronage and promotion, and pay
and pension to a limited and favoured class; but to the
people it brings expenditure of blood and of treasure, in-
creased debts and taxes, and adds risks of war in Wier" part
of the globe.—The following is an extract from Mr. tright's
speech:—

If Mr. Gladstone and the tiberal party had re-
mained in office, there would have been no danger of a
war with Russia (cheers), and I believe there would
have been no war between Russia and Turkey. (Loud
and repeated cheers.) There would have been no
Zulu war (hear, hear), and there would have been no
war against the Ameer of Afghanistan. The finances
of India would not have been thus disordered, and our
friends of the Chamber of Commerce and their con-
stituents might without doubt now in all probability,
or immediately, have had the cotton duties of which
they complain so much entirely abolished. (Cheers.)
And with regard to English finance, there would have
been no juggling (cheers) ; there would have been
no deception; no thimble-rigging (loud laughter
and oheerivg); - everything connected with your
finance would have been wined and abOVer board (hear,
hear) ; the iocoine-tai would long, since have been re-
pealed (cheers), and the'depreesiOn in trade, if it had
.come—uncl some of it must have ‘come, from the state
of things in tho United Staten particularly, and the
state of our own harvest—but the depression of trade,
if it had come, would not have been aggravated by a
Policy restless and wicked (cheers) in three quarters
of the globe., (Cheer,) -Now, I put to you one or
alnallaing
Came
eewk and
tomiannuyltes. shall
( enhoetearelrs ,
and
nodu r
criesa tte no ti c, n,
Gf oor
on.")
Itthwt: t
conclusion as to the opinions of this
wtmheeoeut iws
anangnd, t 8 awwnohdrotmht
iheyoros
ue
and
reth
roe:u stanentrdosmu
et
naonfda
dt
ohoturhsne,dirt:
eidalamth oaotft
affairs. (Cheers.) If the merchants, the manufacturers,
the traders, and the working men of Lancashire prefer
the men who lament the policy. which untaxed'
their food and unchained their industry, who have
wrought mischief through half the world, and have
• used
n dtic ad cover
agnre•at their Parliamentary
- vin majority mainly to
samutes (hear, ;12e4a); if -
- these men are-ta be your political lender i and gnides,
,-.l•advise such •of you as have children to seelic Al
-430ine for them in the colonies of the North Antancat,
a% taht
iontinent, in Canada, or in the United Staterr, or in
rifi
the necw. nations(Cheers.)
that
beard lately a great
t in the Se