The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-02-26 00:00:00

BANQUET TO THE CHANCELLOR OF
THE EXCHEQUER,

Responding to the toast of her Majesty's Ministers
at a banquet given in his honour on Tuesday evening,
at St. George's Club, Hanover-square, London, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer said he had joined a
Government in which he found patriotic colleagues
determined at all costs to maintain in the face of tre-
mendous difficulties the honour of this country
abroad and the maintenance of law and order at home.
(Cheers.) He was glad to see his old friend Lord
Cranbrook present, for although they had in times past
sometimes broken a lance together, their lances would
in future be pointed at the breast of the common foe.
(Loud cheers.) It was now the duty of men belonging
to different parties to sink their political differencesand
to see whether by co-operation they could not further
those great interests which were confided to the care of
both Houses of Parliament. It was not with personal
quest ions that they had to deal, and especially not in that
assembly, which he understood to be non-political,
and one at which men of various opinions were
present. The toast proposed to them was that of her
Majesty's Ministers, and he trusted that it would
always be possible in such an assembly to obtain the
support for the Executive Government of men of all
political creeds. His present after-dinner theory was
that the Opposition was always glad when the Execu-
tive Government of the country was successful in
being able to maintain social order in all parts of her
Majesty's dominions, and the reign of the law
wherever it might be. It would not be right perhaps
for him to dispute that theory, but at the same time he
had sometimes been uncharitable enough to doubt
whethei in practice they had seen such support
given to the Executive Government. A psychological
analysis of the workings of the human heart was
often of very great interest, and to a politician
like himself it was often pleasing to inquire into the
secret working of the political soul. He hoped it was
not inquisitive to speculate whether, when an Oppo-
sition speaker had to deal with a Government diffi-
culty, there was a greater proportion of pleasure or
pain when he regarded that difficulty. Though he
was sorry to think it, he was afraid the exultation of
the partisan was greater than the regret of the patriot.
(Laughter and cheers.) There were occasions when
one would think that every well-thinking citizen would
wish success to the diplomacy of his countrymen; but
the opposite of this it would appear was often the case
with political opponents, and made food for what he
had called the exultation of the partisan. That led
him to a further inquiry. Supposing the course of
events was such that there was no legitimate cause for
complaint—that the diplomacy of the country had
been such as to be justified by events, that in spite
of great difficulties it had nevertheless triumphed
over them, yet it might sometimes strike an Opposi-
tion speaker to create such a state of things an occa-
sion for indulging in partisan exultation. He wished
to say that he was now merely speaking of the posi-
tion of an abstract Executive Government. (Hear,
hear, and a laugh.) There were tremendous Euro-
pean difficulties. Nations were arming many
nations seemed to be bearing a weight of armament
which was a serious public danger—and he inquired
what under such circumstances and tho conduct of a
patriotic Opposition ought to be. Ought it to endea-
vour to invent rebuffs, or to endeavour to enume-
rate failures on the part of those who represented
the government of the nation? He had before
lihn the dim outline of an orator who on a
recent occasion seemed to pour out sentences
of intense satisfaction that her Majesty's
Government had met with sundry rebuffs at
the hands of various foreign Governments; and as
he (Mr. Goschen) listened he endeavoured to detect
some expression of regret that the country had suf-
fered in the matter. There was no regret—but there
appeared, on the contrary, to be a kind of sense of
satisfaction that the Government was supposed to
have failed in certain particulars. That appeared to
him to be a scant and unsatisfactory measure dealt
out to the Government at a time of great European
difficulty. He held the view that in times of diffi-
culty self-restraint °tight to bo imposed upon Opposi-
tion orators, to whatever party they belonged, and
that not (wee the intense satisfaction of being able
to say, "I told you E 0 "—(laughter)—one of the
greatest of human pleasures—ought to influence the
statesman in endeavouring to shake the authority
of the Executive in a moment of gravity and
crisis. (Cheers.) There were times—and he was
not sure we were far from them—when it might
be the duty of Government to address words
either of remonstrance, encouragement, advice, or
restraint to other Powers. He wanted to know
whether it was desirable that at moments such as
these, when the authorised mouth of the Government
had to speak, to hear an irresponsible voice brawling.
at its side, "Don't listen to him; don't believe a word
that he says." If such a course was pursued he said
that the Government was weakened in the councils of
Europe and unable to perform its duty on those great
occasions when every patriotic Englishman, Scotch-
man, and Irishman would wish that the voice of his
Government should speak with equal power as the
voice of any other nation in Europe. (Cheers.) He
had spoken of foreign Powers, but there were other
departments of public life in which he would
wish to bespeak for the Executive Government of
the day whether Conservative or Liberal,
Unionists of whatever shade of opinion—the
support and sympathy of all HO:lb-thinking men.
(Cheers.) They had difficulties at home—that once
was a bond of union between all parties. In former
times the divisions of party were sharp, and party
feeling ran as high as it did at present. But now
there seemed to be a danger that party spirit might
lay its hand even noon issues touching the constitu-
tion of society and the very existence of Government.
(Cheers.) Take the case of Ireland. He wanted to
know what ought to be a greater satisfaction to all the
citizens of these islands than that they should be able
to restore the reign of law in Ireland—(cheers)----that
they should be able to increase her prosperity, while
at the same time doing their duty by all &asses of her
Majesty's subjects in that island. It might be possible
that the sympathies of the Home Rule party in this
country might be enlisted on the side of the con-
tinuance of difficulties the removal of which would
remove one of the chief arguments for the necessity
of Home Rule. He claimed, hoffever, that what-
ever might be the future of Ireland, that they should
sympathise with every effort made by the Executive
Government in thege most arduous times to main-
tain law and assist in the restoration of social order
in the siAer island. (Cheers.) He was not without
hope that the Government might be able to call to
its side new forces in the country. These were the
gentlemen who had hitherto taken little interest in
politics, and who said when political questions were
brought to their notice "A plague of both your
houses." (Laughter.) He hoped these non-political
forces would recognise that the day had come
when thee must go to the front in the
interests of social order and the ineitutions of their
country; for they were, in fact, the volunteers or
auxiliary forces of social order. (Hear, hear.) They
knew that these forces existed, but there was some-
times a difficulty in organising them. They did not
like the drill and they dii not like the organisation.
(Laughter.) But he did trust that the Government
would be enabled to rely more and more upon what
ho might call the non-political classes, and that they
might come to the front, in spite of party difficulties
or recriminations, to strengthen that side in politics,
whichever it might be, which gave pledges for the
maintainance of the law and the defence of the
institutions of the country. They had to main-
tain the Empire, but there were difficulties under
which only the Empire could be maintained.
The law of this country must be enabled to con-
tinue to set an example to the Colonies of the power
of Government. They must show the Colonies that
they had not lost that art by which they had built up
the Empire of which they were so proud. They had
to carry the conviction to all classes of her Maiesty's
subjects that Government was necessary and possible
even under the most Democratic institutions. He
accepted the toast in the hope that Englishmen would
support the Government, provided that Government
held its own and was prepared to show strength and
energy, and to defend the country against the en-
croachments of all weakening influences and anifral.)sti
of all shades and opinione. (Loud cheers.)
Other tosata followed,