The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-06-29 00:00:00

MR. DISRAELI AT THE CRYSTAL
PALACE.

Mr. Disraeli delivered his expected speech at the
Crystal Palace on Monday, to ac mpany of about 1,300
persons. During the greater part of Mr. Disraeli's
remarks a violent thunderstorm was raging; the
palace was brilliantly illuminated by the lightning,
nod at times the patter of the heavy raindrops on the
glass roof made it difficult for those at a distance from
the platform to catch the speaker's words. The right
hon. gentleman spoke, however, very slowly, and it
was evident from the applause which greeted his best
points that very little of his speech was lost. The
galleries were filled with ladies, who were rn st entline
eiastic in their demonstrations both when Mr. Disraeli
entered the room, and when he rose to speak.
The speech, which occupied more than an hour,
was a statement of Conservative principles as con-
trasted with those of Liberalism, and included a
survey of the attitude of public opinion towards
the respective systems. Mr. Disraeli's main thesis
was that Toryism is National, Liberalism Con-
tinental and Cosmopolitan. A Tory party, said the
right hon. gentleman, was nothing .f it was not a na-
tional party. He traced the rise of Liberalism to the fact
that a lon,g course of power and proeperity had minced
the Tory party to sink into a state of apathy and
indifference, and to deviate from the great principles
which had so long regulated the affairs and been
lentified with the glory of England. Instead of
those principles which were prifesscd by Mr. Pitt
and Lonl Grenville, and which those great men in-
herited from Tory statesmen who had preceded them
not less illustrious, the Tory system had degenerated
into a policy which found its basis in the principles of
exclusiveness and restriction. Stating his view of what
Toryism really is, Mr. Disraeli said:—

I have alwayi; been of opb ion that the Tory party has three
great objects. The first is to maintain the institutions of the
country—not from any sentiment of political superstition,
but because we believe that the principles upon which a
community like England can alone safely rest—the principles
of liberty, of order, of law, and of religion—ought not to be
entrusted to individual opinion or to the caprice and passion
of multitudes, but should be embodied in a form of perma-
nence and power. We a'9oCiAtO with the Monarchy the
Ideas which it represents—the majesty of the law, the ad-
ministration of justice, the fountain of mercy and of honour.
We know that the estates of the realm, by the privileges
they enjoy, are the bust security for public liberty and good
government. We believe that a national profession of taith
can only be attained by maintaining on Established Church,
and tr., no society is safe unless there is a public recogni-
tion of the Providential g tvernment of the world, and of the
future responsibility of man.

These principles had all been unceasiogly assailed by
Liberalism for the last forty years, but how we :a they
regarded by the people!—

Only six months ago the advanced guard of Liberalism,
acting in entire unison with the spirit of assault upon the
monarchy which the literature and pellical confederacies ot
liberalism have for forty years maintained, announced Itself
flatly as Republican, and appealed to the people of England
on that distinct Gi ntlemen, what was the answer ? I
need not dwell upon it. It is fresh in your memories and
hearts. The people of England have expressed, In a man-
ner which cannot be mistaken, that they will uphold
the ancient monarchy of Eogland the Constitutional
monarchy of England, limited by the co-ordinate authority
of the estates of the realm, but limited by nothing
else. Now, if you consider the state of public opinion
with regard to those estates of the Realm, what
do you find? Take the case of the House of Lords. The
House of Lords has been assailed during the reign of Liberal-
ism in every manner and unceasingly. Its constitution has
been denounced as anomalous, its influence declared per-
nicious: but what has been the result of this continued
criticism for forty years? Why, the people of England, in
my opinion, have discovered tl.at the existence of a second
Chamber is necessary to Constitutional Government, and,
while necessary to Constitutional Government, is, at thee
same time, of all political inventions, the most difficult to
seem°. Therefore, the people of this country have congratu-
late themselves that, by the aid of an ancient and famous
history, there boa been developed hi this country an
Assembly which possesses all the virtues which a
Senate should possess—independence, great local influence,
eloquence, all the accompli hments of political life, ami
a public training which no theory could supply. The
assault of Liberalism upon the House of Lords hits he,.ti
mainly occasioned by the prejudices of Liberalism against the
land laws of Cilia country. But in my opinion, and no the
opinion of wiser men than tuyeelf, and of men In other
countries limiles this, the liberty of England depends much
upon the landed tenure of England—upon the feet that thxre
may be a class which can alike defy despots and mobs,
around which the people may always rally, and which must
be patriotic from its intimate connection with the soil. Now,
let me nay a word about the other estate of the realm, which
Was first attacked by Liberalism. The most distinguishing
feature, or, at least, one of the most distieeuishing features,
of the great change effected in ISS2 was that those whivelfected
it at once alwilisheri all the franchises of the worki g classes,
they were franchises as ancient as Shone of Gm baronage
of England ; and, while they abolished them, they
offered and proposed no substitute. The diecontent
upon the subject of the representation which afterwards
more or less pervaded our society dates from that period,
and that discontent, all will admit, has now ceased. It was
terminated by the Act of Parliamentary Reform ot
That Act was founded on a confidence that the great body
of the people of this country were "Conservative." I use
the word in its purest and loftiest sense. I mean that the
people of England, and especially the working classes of
England, are proud of belouging to a great country, and
wish to maintain its greatnees—that they are proud of
belonging to an Imperial country, and are resolved to main-
main, if they can, the empire of Enaland—that they believe,
on the whole, that the greatness and the empire of England
are to be attributed to the ancient institutions of the land.
Speaking of the Church, he said
We ere told that the Church was asleep, and It is very
possible, as everybody, civil and spiritual, was asleep forty
veers ago, that that might have been the case. Now we are
told that thee:honk le too active, and that it will be deetroyed
!Ir Its internal restlessness and ener.,y. I see in all these
etforts of the Church to represent every mood of the spiritual
mind of man no evidence that it will fail, no proof that any

fatal disniptlon is at hand. I see in the Church, as! believe
I see In England, an immense effort to :Ise to national feel.
togs and recur to national principles. The Church of Eng-
land, mite all our institutions, feel. that It must be national,
and It kno..s that, to be national, it must be comprehensive.
Ca the subject of the Colonies Mr. Disraeli said :
_ .

It has been proved to all of us that we hare lost money
by our Colonies. It has been shown with precise, with
msthematical demonstration that there never was a Jewel
in the Crown of England that was so truly costly as the
wession of India. How often Itas it been proposed that
We should at once emancipate ourselves from this incubus.
Well that result was nearly accomplished. When those
subtle views were adopted by the country under the
plausible plea of granting self-government to the Colonies,
I coultas that / myerlf thought that the tie was broken.
"Not that I for one ohject to self-government I can-
not conceive how our distant Colonies min have their
affairs sarninittered except by self-government. lint
self-governniert, in my opinion, when it was con-
ceded, ought to have been emit:ed.:4 as part of a gunt
policy wf Imperial conso;idation. It ought to have bten
secompanit by an Im;teriat tariff, by securities for the
people of Et.gland for tins eujoymtnt of the unspproprixtetl
lands which belonged 0 the Sovereign as their trustee, and
by a militaty code widch should have precisely defined the
means and the responsibilities by which the Colonies should
have been defended, and by whit-h, if necessary, this country
should roll for aid from the Colonies themselves it might,
blither, to have been accompanied by the institution of
some representative council in the mAropetlit which audi
has, brought the Colonies into constwut and continuous
rehtions with the Lome Cuverumeut.

In closing his remarks, Mr. Disraeli justified what
he said at Manchester about the importance of sanitary
legislation. To men in whose homes fever was a per-
manent inmate, it was a question of life and death.
The people of England would be greater idiots than
even the Jacobinical leaders of Landon suppose, if,
with their experience and acuteness, they had not seen
that the time had arrived when social, and not politi-
cal improvement is the object at which they should
aim. Mr. Disraeli exhorted his hearers to do their
best to secure the triumph of their principles; the time
was at hand--at least it could not be long distant—
when England would have to decide between national
and cosmopolitan principles. This observation was
received with loud and long-continued cheering, as
was also the prophecy with which the speaker con-
cluded, on the assumption that the Conservative party
would put forth its united strength :—" You will
maintain your country in its present position. But
you will do more than that—you will deliver to your
Po4terity a laud of liberty, of prosperity, of power,
and of glory,"

Before the bancmet there had been held a cenfcrence
of the National Union of Conservative and Constitu-
tional Associations, at which Lord G. Hamilton pre-
sided. The report, which was read by Major the Hon.
C. Keith-Falconer. congratulated the members on con-
tinued prosperity and the increased political value of
the union. The council regretted the resignation of
Mr. Leonard Sedgwiek, and stated thst the duties pre-
viously performed by Mr. Sedgwick were now
undertaken by the joint honorary secretaries of
the union, Mr. J. E. Court and Major the
Hon. C. Keith-Falconer. Upwards of 42,000 pam-
phlets had been printed during the past year,
which, together with donations of book.; Ste.,
had been distributed among the various associ-
ations. The most important of these were speeches by
Lord Derby at Liverpool, Mr. Disraeli at Manchester,
and pamphlets on the Alabama claims, and the
Truck Act, the latter written by Mr. Charley, M.P.
The total number of vice presidents was now 365,
among whom were 60 noblemen and 143 past and
present members of the House of Commons. The
number of honorary members on the books was 219.