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

LORD RUSSELL ON HISTORY.

On Mondsv, Earl Russell delivered his inaugural
address as President of the Historicsl Society at the
Scottish Corporation-hall, Crane-court, Fleet-street,
London. The Duke of Redford and several ladies of
the Russell family. Lord Talbot .le Malahide, Sir John
Bowring, LL.D., General the Hon. Sir Edward Cast,
u, Mr. T. L. Kington Oliphant, Mr. John Rae,
LL.D.' Mr. George Cruikshank, Mrs. Linton, Mr.
James Dodd.s, M. W. A. Mackinnon, C. 8., and the
Rev. Edmund Tew were arnon.; those present.
On the motion of the Rev. Dr. Rogers, the historic.-
graplier of the society, the President elect was formally
requested to take the chair.
. _

Earl Russell, who was received with loud and long con-
tinued cheers. On rising to addreis you I cannot
but feel that I am occupying the place of ens who was illus.
tri,nis not only by the accompluilunent of his great work, the
Moon/ of Greece, but by his extensive learni,g, his love of
liberty, iind his reverence for aucient institutions combined
with readiness to embrace truth from whatever quarter it
mis ht come. These qualities Won for him the attachment of
the soaety in which he lived, cud the admiration and respect
of the nation to which he belonged. Mr. Grate was too en-
lightened a lover of freedom and civilisation not to appre-
ciate the importance of the battle of Marathon. or to fail in
rejoicing at an event by which the freedom of Athens and
the triumph of Grecian civilizatigti wen assured.

It has been the ttielc and the glory of eminent authors to
describe the causes which have led to the decline and fall
of great States ; but my subject is very different from those
which Montesquieu and Gibbon so ably treated, and it would
be an unprofitable use of your time to go into ques-
tions couneoted with the decline or Ilse of the States of
Europe. When for more than a thousand years the con-
querors of the Roman Empire had been settling themselves
down on the territories they had conquered, and when they
had framed institutions by which to govern the races they
had subdued, fused BA these races were into various States
and sub divided by different languages, the kiwilonis which
they had erected [ell in some instances into tho same habits
of luxury and vice which were accounted the proximate
causc of the fall of Rome.

" It becomes a curious and interesting subject of inquiry
what is to he tho fate of the civilized nations of the
world ? It is obvious at the very beginning of this inquiry
that the nations which have come into conflict with Euro-
pean armies and navies have been v:ry inferior in strength
and tower to those nations which warred with the Roman
Empire, and only yielded after bloody battles, or main-
tained to the last a barbar us independence. The Mexicans
and Peruvians, the Red Indians of North America, and
the races inhabiting the Isiands discovered by Columbus,
have fallen an easy prey to the Spaniards under
fortes and Pizarro, to the Dutch and the Eugliah.
The savage trite.' which In North America have come
into contact with European races hav'e generally proved
themselves unfit for civilisation, and so liable to be
degraded by habit. of Intemperance that after no very long
period their courage has degenerated; excessive mortality
has rapidly thinned their numbers, and they have dishy-
',eared from those lands where th.l haul been allowed to
settle. Neither Can any one imagine that the deacendauts of
those races conquered by Corte. and Pizarro will ever ba
nate to re-enact iu the capitals of Europe the revolutions
which before the close of the fifth century gave over Rome
to the Vandals, and made Odoacer King of Italy.
"It would be at once tedious arid on were I to
enter upon a review of the decline of Spain, of tile brilliancy
of the French wooer.. hy, of the appallin4 expiation of its
crimes and its vices, or of the transit ivy restoration of re-
ligious and social order at the close of the last century. It
would be more useful to endeavour to trace the principal
changes which have occurred In the state of the world since
the Peace of 181.5. We may there find the soundings of a
channel which may be of use to future navigators. I rejoice
to say that tile lii icatious which i nod In the history of the
past seem to me to be generally of good omen for the future.
am proud t i mark the advance which has been made both in
civil 41111 religious freedom. The slavery of the negro race,
which throws so dark a shade over the history of the three
preceding centuries, and which was countenanced by the
as est enlightened nations of Europe and America, has received
what I may trust to be ha death-blow during the present
century. Animated by the eloquent denunciation of Wilber-
force and Clarkson, the Government of Lord Grey undertook
an inquiry into the condition of the British colonies. When
Sir James Graham presided alternately with me in a Select
Committee of the House of Commons on this subject, we
found, to our great relief, that the relations of masters and
slave bad not been those of unmitigated cruelty and helpless
degradation: that the families of the masters were often the
protectors of the negroes, and that much of the work in the
colonies was performed by gangs, who received regular wages
for their labour, and were thus preparing themselves for the
cootracts and immunities of freemen. Still, the system was
one of horrible tyranny in the hands of violent and unjust
men, and it was a day of g eat rejoicing to us all when, by a
gift, large though inadequate, of twenty millions sterling,
the ltritish Parliament was able. In 1833, to legislate for the
abolithm of slavery throughout the British dominions.
Abolished, too, in North Miseries in the course of the Civil
War, it is a matter of rejoicing to every one who values the
freedom of mankind to see that with the exception of Brazil
and Cuba, where slavery cannot long continue, the human
race has obtained the vast arid unutterable benefit of freedom
timughout the civilized world.

"But the friends of freedom have naturally looked not only
to the abolition of personal slavery, but to the extension of
political liberty The people of Italy, who have been de-
sorilad as slaves, lint slaves always fretting against their
chains, have, by the abilities of a great Statesman, the
patriotism of the House of Savoy, and the ardor and
courage of the nation, lieen emancipated amid shouts of joy
for free and united Italy. 11, Spain, although the work is not
yet accomplished, thereto already a bright prospect. There,
as in Italy, the desire for religious liberty has been to a great
extent gratified, at Cordova and Seville, as at Florence and
Naples, Protestant churches have been established ; and the
Bible may now be read without fear of tire Inquisition or of
such punishment as was Milk:toil not many years ago on the
family of the Medial. In Austria religious liberty has been
sanctioned by the Emrcrer, and the treaties with the Pope
abrogated with general applause.

"It remains to be considered whether the scourge of war,
which inflicts so many direct and so many indirect evils on
mankind, ran be mitigated, or, still better, averted in
future. For my part, I have little confidence in the per-
manent duration of treaties of peace, or of complicated and
artificial s.:l.mes of al bitration. It appears to me that it
is by no formal ruler, by no complex machinery of Councils
and Congresses, that the future peace of the world can be
promoted and secured. Our hope must be in the in-
troduction of a Christian temper into all the relations
of nations as well as of bdividuals. The inspiration which
prompted Christ's Sermon on the Mount, which enabled
Paul on the bill of Mars to tell the people of Athens that
he would reveal to them art ' Unknown God '—the Cod
who made the world and all that is therein—ouch Is the
spirit by which alone living nations and their posterity
can realize upon earth Ptace and goodwill." (Hear, hear.

„
Sir John B iwring moved and Mr. Kington Oliphant
seconded a vote of thanks to the President for his
address.

Lord Talbot de Milli& proposed a vote of thanks
to the Committee of the Society.
The motion was seconded by the Duke of Ledford
and carried with applause.
Lord Russell, in acknowledging the compliment paid
him by the secitty, said,—' Raving been overcome by
the heat of the weather, and having other duties not a
little arduous to perform, I had doubted whether I
should be able to Hill the task I had undertaken, but
have generally found that when there is a duty which
clearly ought to be paformed, the performance
of that duty does not injure one's health, but
rather strengthens the constitution. I am not likely
to do much more in my present life, but I shall always
rejoice as long as I live to see the liberties of mankind
advancing, and if those who succeed us can do better
than we dal, I shall be glad to see our work committel
to abler hands."
The proceedings then terminated.