The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-10-17 00:00:00

"";THE BEST WAY TO SECURE

Then, as regards general polities,! hardly think I need say
anything. lam a man of peace, butt have been taught—and
I feel it Is true teaching—that to preserve the peace von
should be able to protect yourselves. Cheers ' In the wide
world of ambition and the search after glory we may have
things threatened and done if we are not able to hold
up our heads and protect ourselves. (Renewed cheers
therefore, leap that England must be defended; she mnst
Ito protected from insult; she must be protected
from injury. Her sons are over the globe. They go
to Asia, to Attica, to America, and to Europe; they are
Illicit every sea; every country is visited by them—as Burke
amid, " Shall we not be able to protect our ions when they
are abroad as well as when they are at home?" (" Yea" and
cheers.) But all this costs money hear, hear', eel It Is
very poor ecom my to say you won't protect your children.
:Cheers.) That's iny view with regard to peace and war. No
aggressive war for rite hear, hear, neither in Europe nor in
India. ,hear, hear.) lam against all aggression. Defensive
war is justifiable, and England ought to he prepared to defend
herself. There is one other very important question which
must come before the next Parliament of this country,
, and that is national education. ,Cheers. I Now, in the year
1833 I proposed to the then House of Commons and to be
then Liberal Government a proposition that national ethics
-
thin should lie adopted. Hear.) How was I Inlet? I brought
the proposition forward two years, anti when on the second
occasion it was found that I shoulti be successful in sonic
degree in getting a committee, immediately a young noble-
man of Whig principles stepped in, and took the committee
out of my hands, and down dropped the whole question if
national education. (Cheers. There was, and there has Iwelt,
a pretence of educating the people, but that won't satisfy
me. hear, hear.) The people now have the power in their '
own hands, and if they don't semi to Parliament men who will
insist upon an educatien, thereis the fault. Cheers. j I hope to
see a great scheme of national education aulopted :hear,
hear), without reference to sect or religion at all. Cheers.)
I would admit every child into the national school Let him
iko taught his religion. Such religion as we all believe in
you can teach in very general propositions ; but Ma own par•
titular religion lie nutst learn from his own particular
clergyman. Cheers.) I would have a school that would ad-
mit the Jew, the Mussulman, the Christian, and the Hind...
,Hear.) Teach him what is right and just ins all climes and
In all nten, anti you gn far to make him a good Maa.
(('heers ) Well, then, I think there UM be no doubt about
that. I" Hear, hear" anti laughter. I complain, I bitterly
complain, that the efforts I have made on this subject have
lieen constantly used against me—aye, in this town, and by
the very persons who now advocate what I advocated.
(Loud cheers, and cries of "Sham,', shame
Mr. Roebuck then concluded his speech by advert-
ing to matters which affected him personally, amongst
which was the' Aare which he bad in procuring the
commission which elicited the truth about the system
of " rattening," and the details of which at the time
horrified the nation.

The Pall .11101 Gazette, in remarking upon Mr I
Roebuck's speech, says :
Mr. Roebuck's characteristic speech at Sheffield will hardly
he read by any one without a feeling of admiration and sym-
pathy, mixed with a sincere hope for his success, 'there may, '
perhaps, he a little too much I in it, hut election speeches
are not to be weighed hi critical balances, and it must be
owned that Mr. Roebuck has fairly earned the right to talk
about himself, which is by no means true of all egotists.
Ile has, moreover the great merit of treating his constituents
like a man, lie does not in the least degree affect to put
himself on a level with working men—to talk their language,
or flatter their prejudices ; on the contrary, lie says just what
he thinks, both of and to them, and in no degree puts under
a bushel those claims to their respect which he derives from
superior knowledge and education. The best illustration of this
is to he found hi the line which he takes upon the sunject of
trade unions. The subject itself, and his observations upon
It, are, however, too important to be dismissed in a few
words, and we shall take an early opportunity of returning
to them. The rest of his speech contains little more than a
vigorous re-statement of the speaker's well-known opinions
ou a great variety of subjects. We need not refer to them
specially ; but in each instance the same vigorous, outspoken
voice is to be heard in accents about which there cannot
possibly be any mistake whatever. When there is so much
insincerity sprinkled with a fair amount of downright lying,
so much reticence, so much humbug of every sort and kind in
political life, it is always pleasant to come across Mr.
Roebuck. The pleasme is dashed by one consider:di, al only.
Ile has bought the right to speak his mind at the expense of
being always out of place. Ile may not grudge it, but the
fact that such bargains have to be made is not good for the
country.