The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-05-03 00:00:00

LORD DERBY ON THE WAR.

The Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoras, according to
time-honoured custom, gave a dinner in the Egyptian
Hall of the Mansion House, on Easter Monday evening.
Tim company included the Earl of Derby and other
members of Her Majesty's (lover:intent, and, as will
be seen, the noble Premier took occasion, in returning
thanks for the health of the Ministry, to allude to the
present troubled aspect of European affairs. In respond•
mg to the health of "The Earl of Derby and Her
Majesty's Ministers," the Premier said, there is a topic
to which even here, where politics properly so called am
rightly and justly banished, to which I feel it necessary
to advert, and to advert to it on various grounds. I
advert to it, first, on account of the overwhelming
anxiety which in every house and Immo in England is
kindled by the state of public affairs abroad. (Cheers.)
I advert to it, secondly, becesuse it is a subject on
which, so far as I know, neither as regards the policy
which has been pursued, nor the policy which ought to
be pursued, is there any material difference of opinion
throughout the length and breadth of this land. I
allude to it, thirdly, because, more especially in the
absence of Parliament, I hold that this is a moment at
which • Minister should lose no (opportunity of frankly
and fully placing the public in the confidence of the
Government, and letting theni know distinctly, and
without an effort at disguise, what we have been doing,
what we are doing, and what we deem it right to do.
(Cheers.) I would to God that I could assure you, my
Lord, that at this moment I saw a fair and reasonable
prospect that the peace of the world would be perm..
nently maintained. All I can say is this, that I have
not lost every spark of hope that the flame may still be
prevented from breaking out, and all I can &noire
you is that day by day, and night by night
—indeed, almost hour by hour, our efforts
are unceasing to avert, if it be yet possible,
that dreadful scourge, a European war. One
last effort which I announced our intention of
making we have made to bring the contending parties to
an understanding as to the terms on which they might
meet in congress. I regret to say that Austria has
rejected the offer of three terms. I regret to say still
more that almost simultaneously with the rejection of
that offer of England, Austria has felt it necessary to
send to Sardinia a peremptory message demanding her
immediate disarmament, under the threat of war,
within the space of three days. Ido not wish to express
any opinion upon the merits of one or other of the con-
flicting causes which are before the great tribunal of
Europe; but this I must say, and that with deep regret,
that in adopting that course Austria has taken upon
herself—if, indeed, she still acts upon her menace—
that fearful responsibility which attaches to thatcountry
which first deserts the peaceful ways of diplomacy and
subjects the question in dispute to the terrible arbi-
trament of the sword. (Cheers.) My Lord, we had
not known for 12 hours the course which Austria had
determined upon taking before wo instructed our
Mini.iter, in the name of England, emphatically and
formally to protest against the step of Austria. (Loud
cheers.) It may be that that protest has been unavail-
ing; it may be that the horrors of war are already, or
are about to be to-morrow morning invoked. I du not
say that Austria had no cause for complaint. On the
contrary, I am bound to say I think that by her aggres-
sive and propagandist tcne Sardinia has deprived her-
self of a great deal of that moral support whi, h the
sympathy of England would give to the free institutions
which she has s , nobly maintained. But Ido say thi.,
that there was nothing in the state of affairs at the
mono lit to diseoorage—indeed, there was everything to
lead to—the hope Of a successful issue to the negotia•
tious. There was nothing, in rr.y judgment, to justify
the hasty, the precipitate, and, because involving the
horrors of war, the criminal, step which had been t .ken
by Austria. (Cheers.) What the consequences"( thst
step may be no Lumen foresight can tell ; but, what-
ever they may be, Austria has brought them upon her-
self, however lamentable they may prove to her. Ido
not hesitate to say that within the last 12 hours we have
attempted yet one last measure, in the hope of averting
the calamities of war. The Congress has failed. The
possibility of the united efforts of Europe has failed;
but we have at the last hour, and on this very day,
despatched to Vienna and to Paris a joint representa-
tion, offering to take up, on the part of England alone,
the mediation at the point at which it was left by Lord
Cowley, and to endeavour to arrange the differences
between the two great powers in dispute, subjelt tono
of these two conditions—either an immediate, absolute,
and simultaneous disarmeinent of the three Powers,
Frame. Austria, and Sardinia, or a consent on the part
of all the three, pending the result of the mediation,
to retain their armies precisely in their present
condition, and to maintain a position, if nut of
peace, at all events of inaction. (Cheers) It
reniains for Inc only, with your indulgence, to state
the course which we intend to pursue; and I do this
the rather because I perceive that words which fell from
me have been misapprehended in a quarter in which I
should be exceedingly sorry that any misconception
should exist, and that they have been misinterpreted, or
I am sure they would not have been misrepresented, by
a noble lord who has long had the distinguished honour
of sitting as one of the representatives of this great city,
and whose every word falls with the weight and influ-
ence due to his position and character. That noble lord
supposes me to have said that I thought it the duty of
England to maintain a posture of armed neutrality in
order that we might take the part of whichever of the
belligerents we believed was in the right, and he ands
that, from the manifest partiality which we have shown
for Austria, there can be no doubt on which site we are
prepared shortly to draw the sword. Now, I take the
liberty to say here—and I rejoice to have the oppor-
tunity of saying—thus emphatically and publicly. that
nothing could have been further from our view. I
think that if the words which I used had been correctly
represented to the noble lord he would have seen that
it was impossible that they could have had that meaning.
What I did say was this--that we intended to maintain
a strict neutrality ; but that when • million or mom of
men were in anns, when the contest was already
engaged in, when war was not only imminent, but in
actual existence, and that, moreover in Italy and upon
the shores of the Mediterranean, it was incumbent upon
and absolutely necessary for Us, looking to the great
interests we have involved there, looking to the great
possessions and the inanity positions we occupy in that
quarter, that we should be in such a state as to niaintain
and defend the security of those possessions and pre-
serve the British flag and British anus from the pos-
sibility of insult amid any of the contingencies which
might arise from the contest. And I said this,—not
that we should maintain an armed neutrality for the
purpose of joining this or the other of the parties with
whose quarrels, whatever we may thing of them in point
of reason or in justice, there is nothing in our national
interests or national honour which calls for our inter.
ference. So far from wishing to join either of the bel-
ligerents, I went on to say that our armed neutrality
ought to be for the purpose of maintaining that position
which we have held and which as long as possible we
are determined to hold—namely that of perfect and
entire neutrality, free from all engagements, fettered by
no engagements and no promises, and completely at
liberty to use the influence—God forbid that I should
have to add the anus—of England in such a manner and
in such a cause as we might consider to he called for
under the circumstances of the time by the interests,
the honour, and the dignity of our country. (Clews.)
I repeat that our anxious desire is to maintain peace for
ourselves. But I go further, and may that, even if the
sword should be drawn, if unhappily war should break
out, England will maintain a watchful and an observant
attitude—observant, not for the purpose of profiting by
the weakness or the calamities of others, but for the
purpose of discovering the slightest gleam of light that
should break forth amid the gluon of war, and should
disclose a reasonable probability of the dispersion of the
clouds, and afford • ground or opportunity for the
interposition of the pacific influence of England.
(Cheers.) The noble Earl concluded by thanking the
aseemblage for the manner in which they bad received
the toast.)