The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-11-15 00:00:00

MR. GLADSTONE AT THE LORD

MAYOR'S BANQUET.
Lord Mayor's Day in London, on Monday, was ob-
served with the ceremonial intimately ssiociated with
the day by immemorial enrage. As on former ouca-
dons the line of route was crowded with spectators, al-
though the weather, more especially in the early part
of the day, was wet and cheerless. The ceremony at
Westminster wee followed by a splendid banquet at
Guildhall, which was attended by a large number of
distinguished guests, including most of her Majesty's
Ministers.

At the banquet Mr. Gladstone, in the course of his
meech in responding to the tout of "The Health of
Her Mejeaty's Ministers," mid :—My Lord Mayor, I
heartily wish that we could find the tranquil and the
stable conditions of the inatitutions and the society of
this country reflected, as in a mirror, In the state of
every other country in Europe. Unhappily it is not
so. In some quarters we find embarrassment ; in others
we find what approaches to political chaos. There
have been times when the blind and inhuman superstition
has prevailed which has taught the citizens of each
country to believe thatitherr own country must beetrong
and powerful in proportion as other countries were dis-
tracted and weak. That superstar' at least I trust, my
Lord Mayor, we have long cast behind no. It is no
pleasure to no, standing on the security of the shore, to
see others labouring in the storm. (Caere) We
heartily and cordially wish to each, whatever for the
moment may be their politics—to those who may have
been for the moment called to the task of maintaining
or reestablishing law and order—we heartily wish
them success in their legitimate and patriotic efforts,
and the more they can advance in each COMO the
condition of their own country, the greater and the
closer the union they can establish among the various
classes of their citizens, the firmer the basis they
can give to their institutions, the more effective
and abundant the development they may secure
for their material interests, the greater will
be the pleasure and satisfaction with whih we
shall bear the new, of their well-doing. (Cheers.)
We have no hope but one—that it may for ever con-
tinue and extend. (Cheese.) But lam afraid, my Lord
Mayor, whatever our wished" may be be, we cannot anti-
cipate that in every quarter of Europe that state
of stable prosperity will rapidly be established which
it is our duty to desire • and all that remains to us, in
these circumstances, is; to see that, never forgetting
our primary obligations' to maintain the hcnour and
the interests of our own country, subject to that
primary obligation our cordial dente will be, in every
way that is open to us, to endeavour to promote the
welfare of those other ceuntriee whom we regard as
brethren in the great community of Christendom and
of civilized mankind. (Cheers.) Well, my Lord Mayor,
it is not very difficult to dml, under circumstances like
these, with the foreign relations of this country.
(_heen.) When I turn to its domestic condition, I
feel myself in • degree more perplexed; for we are all
of us, happily, in this country accustomed to become
faadlisr with the opinions and impromions, not only of
all dams of our countrymen, but with the opinions of
men of every colour and shade of politics that are
to be found germinating in such abundant variety in
every one of those clams. (A laugh.) Undoubtedly, my
Lord Mayor, vary great indeed would be the contrast
betweenthe km that the "intelligentforeigner"
—to make use of • stereotyped expression—would
form with regard to the condition of the three king-
doms of Her Majesty, according to the accidental
character of those orgasm of opinion which he might
particularly to consult. I do not here allude
to the which are dzswzmin journals more or
Is sympathiling with the policy and prooeedings of
the Government I will only for a moment allude to
those more tragical and dismal descriptions with which
I have no doubt many of you are daily famiaroctect
laugh), which the most wild invention ever concocted,
(A laugh.) Well, now, drawing my inspiration for
a moment from these hallowed sources, the condi-
tion of the country is, I find, not only very fax
from being satisfactory Or perfect, but it is very de-
plorable indeed—in truth, so deplorable that there
Is almost something unnatural in the simembling of
• thousand of the most distinguished citizens of Lon-
don, gathering themselves around the festive board of
the Lord Mayor, to enjoy themselves, am appears to
me, without stint and without reserve, at a time when
the country is undergoing such a horrible infliction.
(A laugh.) For, according to the intelrgenoe I have
received with which I became acguainted, not con-
fidentially, hut in a manner which Is equally open to
you all—according to these representations, for • good
many yean peat, and particularly for the last five
years, the country has been undergoing • discipline of
trial and sffliction that is lamentable to behold and
record. There is not • single interest in the ',country
which has not been threatened; and of those interests,
a very large portion has not only been threatened but
weaned, and every considerable portion of those am ailed
have been fatally mutilated or altogether destroyed. (A
laugh.) Gentlemen, you know vary well that these are
I the impreedons which some of the intelligent organs of
1 public opinion have formed, and which they have been en-
gaged, with the utmost sincerity and great ability, no
doubt, in propagating from day to day. (A laugh,)
But is it not a most extraordinary circumstance indeed
that all this mischief Mould have been done without our
knowbili it ? (Chem-) &amine. I must lay, although
I see constant statements of this kind, I have never
been so fortunate or unfortunate, as the came may be,
to meet the OLD who could give chapter and verse of
the particulars of the ruin and destruction he de-
scribed. (Cheers.) What is the sense of "the con-
dition of the country?" When we say that all the in-
terests of the country are assailed, I say the aggregate
of the country is made up of these separate intermits,
and if all these interests are amailed the
country in the aggregate must be in • miserable condi-
tion—just as if • man had one disease in his right leg,
another in his left leg, and another in his right and left
arm, if all the various members of his body were the
subject of disease, his general condition, you woeld all
agree, must be very serious indeed. How in this general
condition of the country to be ascertained? I say if you
teat it in moral respects, so far as its moral condition
depend. on its public policy it has net retrograded.
(Cheers.) Whether Parliament may in every instance
have been wise in every measure it has adopted I will not
undertake to say; but I will undertake to say that at no
has the policy of Parliament been Mildred by
period
or by wider aims than daring the years to which
these disparaging references are made, (Cheers.) But
Ii we are to speak of its material conditions, although I
should be sorry indeed to be understood for • moment as
sodeavourizig to impress on you that material goods were
the chief ends for which man exists; at least they have
this advantage, that they can more readily be made the
subject of argument and controversy, and vague sod
random al/madras MD more readily be brought to the
criterion of some concludes test. (Chasm) I want I
to know where are these soigne of ruin in the material
condition of the country. (Cheem) No doubt It-ha.
been constantly asserted ; no doubt it has been
pertinaciously prophesied, from the day when I was •
child to the day when I am pasts( to old age—l
should weary and exhaust you were I to attempt to
refer to the long list of legislative Amps which have
been boldly prophesied would involve tke ruin of the
mutiny. Almost all of those changes, with regard to
which our prophets have indulged in these dismal toad-
' nations, have been adopted by the nation's will teen in-
=Parliament, end by a people that knew what it
and bow to carry its end. (Cheers.) And where
me we now? I ink you, woe there ever • time when
the inatitntions Of the ocemay stood firmer sad more