The Press.
London, England, 1857-03-21 00:00:00

491

Riding of Yorkshire. (" Hear," and a laugh.) I
said I had no combination or concert with any person
before I came into this house, and 1 spoke the exact
and literal truth. But when I came into this house
I took an opportunity of showing to my noble and
learned friend now at the table (Lord Lyndhurst)
the resolution which I had prepared, and I had the
good fortune to find that it met with his entire
approval. There was at the time sitting by my noble
and learned friend a Whig peer—a man of great
eminence, a distinguished and cordial supporter of
her Majesty's Government. He asked if I would
allow him to see the resolution. I said, certainly, if
he wished it. Having read over the resolution care-
fully he asked me whether I had any objection to
strike out one epithet. I replied certainly not, and
at once drew my pen through the word to which he
objected. I then laughingly observed—" As I have
altered my resolution to meet your wishes, I am
entitled to claim your support." (A laugh.) And I
had it. (Continued laughter.) That was the only
combination I entered into. (Hear, hear.) That
noble lord is a leading Whig peer and a supporter of
the present Government; he, therefore, is my accom-
plice in this unprincipled combination. (Hear, hear.)
So much for the House of Lords.

Now, I am bound to defen 1, if defence be neces-
sary, my political friends in the House of Commons
from the charge of being concerned in what un-
doubtedly would have been a most unprincipled act.
Shortly before I gave notice of my motion in your
lordships' house, but after making my statement in
the debate upon the Address, at a time when the
House of C was occupied and its attention
almost entirely engrossed by the discussion upon the
budget, a right hon. friend of mine with whom I am
in constant and intimate political communication
asked me whether I did nst think the subject of
China was one that it was desirable to bring before
the House of Commons, for in that case he was will-
ing to make a motion upon it. I said I fully con-
curred in his opinion, and that I thought it was a
case which Parliament could not possibly pass over ;
but I advised him nct to give any notice until he had
communicated with one or two political friends, more
especially with the right hon. gentleman who leads
the Conservative party in the other house. My right
hon. friend, some twenty-four hours afterwards, came
to me and said—" I have acted upon your advice,
and have given no notice,but I am sorry to tell you Mr.
Cobden has taken the matter out of our hands and
has given a notice upon the subject of China which
will prevent me from doing anything."
Now, my lords, I will go further, and tell you a
little more of our conversation, to show how much
foundation there is for this cry of " coalition." My
hon. friend expressed to me his apprehension, in
which I concurred, that the fact of the subject of
China being bro tight forward by a person whose
views general ly we dissented from entirely might in •
dispose some of those who agree with us from giving
their support to a motion which they could not in
strict reason or justice resist. We have it, too, upon
the high authority of Mr. Cobden—a gentleman with
whom I have not the least acquaintance, and have
never, I believe, exchanged a word either upon this
or any other subject. We have his declaration in the
House of Commons that before he brought forward
his resolutions he communicated them to no one ex-
cept his intimate friend, Mr. Gibson, the member for
Manchester. (Hear, hear.) Am I to vindicate
myself and my friends from a charge of combining
to procure the factious overthrow of the Govern-
ment with Lord J. Russell, with Sir F. Baring, with
Lord R. Grosvenor, and other most distinguished and
faithful adherents of the Whig party ? Yet all those
members voted in the majority, and all, I presume,
on the slanderous reports which are spread abroad,
are regarded as accomplices in this base and in-
famous coalition. tHear, hear.) The majority in
the other house comprised many supporters of the
Government; it comprised, almost without excep-
tion, beyond those actually in the Government, every
man of note of every party in that house. (Hear,
hear.) Of the party which goes by the name of