The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-08 00:00:00

SIR J. GRAHAM AT CARLISLE.

THE ceremony of cutting the first sod of the Silloth
Railway was performed by Sir J. Graham yesterday
(Friday) week. The new line is to join the Port
Carlisle Railway, at Drumburgh, and to run to a point
on the coast of the Solway Frith called Silloth Bay,
a distance of nearly ten miles. The act for its con-
struction was obtained during the last session of
Parliament, after a protracted and expensive contest
with the Maryport and Carlisle Railway, and a double
defeat. The third effort was successful, and it was
determined by the directors to give eclat to the corn.
mencement of the work by inviting Sir James Graham
to turn the first sod. The scene took place at Drum-
burgh, a small township to the south-east of Bowness,
and within sight of the Solway Frith.
After the ceremony bad been performed with due
eclat and gravity, a ciejeuner was given to the invited
guests, and in the course of the proceedings Sir
James made three speeches, discoursing in various
terms upon topics suggested by the event of the day.
Among a diversity of other remarks, the right hon.
baronet said, in his first address :

Amid the din of war—amid the prodigal and fruitless
expenditure of millions of the public money—amid the
grievances and disasters, the death, the sickness, the
wounds and groans of thousands of our fellow-creatures, it
is gratifying to my feelings to be occupied this day in a
work worthy of a great and commercial people—a work
which has raised the country of which we are the favoured
inhabitants to the highest pitch of commercial greatness.
Works of this kind iu foreign countries have been the
boast of conquerors and of kings ; but in our country
they are the works of citizens. It is not the statesman
who has projected them, nor are they carried on for poli-
tical purposes, but they are the fruits of honest industry,
they are derived from the earnings of industrious labour.
When constructed they are directed by our neighbours ;
and it is my hope and prayer that this work which we have
begun to-day may be conducive to the interests of the com-
munity to which I am attached by every tie that can bind
the heart of man to his fellow•creatures. It is the boast of
the age in which we live that science and capital have been
combined, and by that means the greatest monuments of
the greatest country in the world been secured. Our com-
mercial greatness may pass away, but these works are ever-
lasting memorials that we in our time and generation have
not lived in vain. I pray and trust that the work which
we have began to-day may take its place among those to
which I have adverted.

In his second speech he observed:—
I see the question constantly asked—a question which
you cannot fail to divine, seeing that it has been so re-
cently and frequently put—" What would have been the
conduct of Sir Robert Peel in existing circumstances were
he now alive?" Permit me to say that that is a fruitless
question-La needless and nnpreductive speculation. It is
hard to say what in present cireumstanees would have been
his conduct ; but time has not abated my sorrow for his
loss. I feel every day more and more the loss of his
friendship. I regret every day the absence of that advice
on which I so much relied—that advice which was ever
dictated by the soundest sense, by the warmest sympathy
with the interests and feelings of the people of this coun-
try, whom he served with constant fidelity, and whose
happiness, prosperity, and welfare, it was the object of his
life to promote. I cannot tell you, although perhaps, with-
out vain boasting, I may say that I enjoyed to a great
extent, to the last moment of his life, his confidence—l
cannot pretend to say what in the varying circumstances
of the present moment might be his position. I can,
however, look back to what was his past conduct; and,
recollecting what that past conduct was, I can truly tell
you that, in reference to the past, it is the pronfleat recol-
lection of my public life that I was associated with him
and enjoyed his confidence for the short remainder of that
public life. It will he my endeavour to act in conformity
with the principles he enunciated, and with the view I
know he took of what was conducive to the prosperity of
this country. Of all things he was the maintainer of peace ;
he was the promoter of constitutional and progressive
reform ; he was the great defender and champion of com-
merce ; he was the guardian of the manufacturing interests
of this country, from which interest he sprung and evinced
the utmost solicitude for its welfare; and if for a moment
a cloud passed over his memory on the part of the agricul-
tural interest, yet now I think the time has arrived when I
may safely appeal to those around me to say whether he
was not the agriculturist'sfriend—whether he inflicted any
lasting injury upon that interest by his deep conviction
that commerce, manufacture, and agriculture, were identi-
cal and inseparable. These were the principles of my late
lamented friend—principles which to the last moment of
my life will actuate my conduct. I regret the loss we have
sustained, but when I am asked what would have been the
conduct of Sir Robert Peel in the present crisis, I will
answer that for the remainder of my public life I will
endeavour to give effect to the view I take of his princi-
ples. It is vain to ask what he would do. It is right to
ask what he did. With reference to his views upon railway
competition, he did not think that competition was benefi-
cial as the exception, but as the general rule. Facility of
communication, lie was of opinion, whether by railroad,
navigation, and, indeed, in every possible way it could be
excited, was conducive to the real interests of the country.
(Hear, hear.) And, in reference to speculation, he had
such confidence in the shrewdness, intelligence, and good
sense of his countrymen, that he was satisfied that those
who engaged in such undertakings as a pecuniary specula-
tion would have sufficient discretion and intelligence to
take care of themselves. He considered competition to
be the soul of commerce, the parent of low prices, in which
ype great bod 7 Of ;14e people 14,11 I* 01 aft i.lltflift,

855

was the advocate of competition: I say, I also am an advo-
cate of competition ; and in reference to this scheme, I
believe it will not only be conducive to competition which
will be beneficial to the public, but will also I hope not be
injurious to the shareholders, which was the only doubt I
entertained upon the subject when first brought under my
notice. (Cheers.)

And in his third :
"The glory of our native land," which is commemorated
in the song we have just heard ("The Englishman" had
just been sung), may, am far as relates to our arms, be
safely left to our gallant soldiers and allies, who, having
braved every privation and every danger in the field, and
every evil that can possibly bend an army under the most
difficult and disastreus circumstances, have triumphed
over those ditfizulties, and, associated with our allies, have
gained many victories, and, 1 trust., will gain many more.
(Cheers.) Our object here to-day is also to sustain the
honour and glory of our country. The arts of peace Moe
their triumphs as well as the arts of war. They have abo
their difficulties, which must be overcome by energy com.
bined with prudence ; and the undertaking which we have
this day begun is commenced under happy auspices
because it is connected with municipal self-government.

REFORMATORY SCHOOL FOR WILTS.
Ax influential meeting of noblemen and gentlemen
connected with the county of Wilts was held on
Monday at Devizes, for the purpose of taking the
necessary steps to establish a reformatory institu-
tion for that county. The Marquis of Lansdcwne
presided ; and among those present were the Mar-
quis of Bath, Sir John Audry, Mr. J. Wilson, M.P.,
Captain Gladstone, M.P., Mr. T. H. Sotheron, M.P.,
Mr. E. H. W. Heneage, M.P., Mr. Ewart, M.P., Mr.
Mereweather, Q.C. (Recorder of Devizes), Mi.
G. P. Scrope, M.P., the Dean of Salisbury, dm In
opening the proceedings, the noble chairman re-
marked that it had become a matter of general
observation and regret that, although there was a
pretty general diminution of crime, yet juvenile
delinquency had been progressing for some years
past. The only means of arresting its progress, he
submitted, was by establishing a system of reforma-
tion whereby juveniles might be rescued from a
career of inevitable crime. The subject bad already
been treated with practical results in other counties,
and it was most advisable to imitate their example in
Wiltshire. The object of the meeting, which could
not yet be considered as a county demonstration, was
to ascertain in what direction the first step could be
most advantageously taken.
The Marquis of BATH proposed the first resolution,
" That it is highly expedient that a school for the
reformation of juvenile offenders be established in
this county," and stated that at the quarter sessions
in July last it wee virtually decided to take some
step in aid of the object for which they were assembled.
It had been found a difficult task—almost, indeed, an
impossible one—to effect the reformation of our adult
delinquents, and they were therefore led to consider,
not how they might cure crime, but how they might
check it in its youth and arrest its headlong career
by the reformation of juvenile offenders, and make
them useful members of society ; and, as the object
had been achieved in other places, he thought it in-
cumbent on the inhabitants of Wiltshire not to be
behind their neighbours in carrying into effect such
an important undertaking. k Applause).
The resolution was' carried unanimously. After
another resolution had also been adopted, on the
motion of Mr. Sotheron, to the effect " That such
schools should be established upon the basis of
economy and practical usefulness," a committee
VMS appointed to select a proper site, and take the
preliminary steps for the establishment a a reforma-
tory school.

THE QUEEN, upon the recommendation of Sir
William Moleaworth, has appointed Mr. Hincks, an
influential member of the Canadian Legislature, to
the Governorship of Barbadoes. This appointment,
says the Times, is not so simple a matter as it would
appear to be at first sight. "It is the inauguration of
a totally different system of policy from that which
has been hitherto pursued with regard to our colonies.
We only trust that it may be carried out to its legiti-
mate extent, and that the more distinguished among
our fellow-subjects in the colonies may feel that the
path of imperial ambition is henceforth open to them.
They are not Canadians, nor Australians, nor mere
denizens in Jamaica or at the Cape, but Englishmen
above all, and before all—Englishmen who have the
same legitimate right to hold the highest offices in
Church or State at home or abroad, as any person
born within the four rseas. It is the feeling of
Englishmen at home that this ought henceforward to
be the rule of policy. We trust that this appoint-
ment of Mr. Hincks to a colonial governorship will
show that at home we are really in earnest in the
matter, and ask no better than to call into the service
of the country, talent—home-grown or colonial—in
fact, talent wherever it may be found."
THE RETURNS Or THE METROPOLITAN REGIBTRARS
continue to exhibit a rate of mortality which is not
high for London at this period of the year. In the
week that ended on Saturday last the A 9 51,16 fmtv
49,4f1 miqdir94 709 8 Yu,