The Press.
London, England, 1857-03-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

pears to be. While we lay out this enormous sum
in making the people good, observe how greatly in-
creasing, at the same time, is the expense of
looking after those who are bad. (Hear, hear.)
Convicts cost in 1848 477,531/. (I go to that
year, because it is the first of the present form
of vote.) In 1850 they cost 900,3441., being an in-
crease of 428,0001. I cannot give the vote for this
year, because it is not passed, and there is no esti-
mate. Taking the three years ending in 1856, and
comparing them with the three years ending 1853,
there is an increase under that head alone of
152,0001. Let us just go back to the year 1838.
Education cost 80,0001., convicts cost 41M131. ;
making together 393,2131. In the year 1856 educa-
tion cost 754,000/., in the year 1850 convicts cost
006,3741.; being together 1,660,374/. There is an
increase in education and convicts over the first year
in the account of 1,267,161/. There is a class of
votes which is called " special and temporary ob-
jects;" and really under that head I think what ap-
pears is more remarkable than under any other. The
account begins in 1838, and between that year and
1850 there are 120 different heads of charge, not
less than sixty of which are new within the last
three years. (Hear, hear.) The average of that
class of votes for the three years ending 1840 was
213,3001., for the three years ending 1853 270,2201,,
and for the three years ending 1850 681,900/. The
increase in the last three years is 404,7461., and, as
compared with the three years ending 1840, the
increase is 408,060/.

Putting all the votes together, and com-
paring 1857 with the average of the three
years ending 1853, observe the increase. Public
buildings and palaces, 81,1551.; Royal parks and
gardens, 59,5481.; printing and stationery, :234,3771.;
education, 401,7661.; science and art, 55,8691.; con-
victs, 152,1041.; special and temporary objects,
404,7461.—altogether 1,392,5451. have been added to
the public charges in three years, under the heads
to which I have drawn your lordships' attention. I
say that no Government—no State—can go on with
this extravagance. It is perfectly impossible.
(Cheers.) I know that complaints during the pro-
gress of the war were made of the extravagance with
which it was carried on, and we were promised infor-
mation and inquiry when the war was ended. No
information has been given upon the subject, and
the house of Commons, which ought to have inquired,
has not done so. (Hear, hear.)

Having gone through those points, I must ask
your lordships, and I should willingjy ask any gentle-
man who appeared upon the hustings, what Lord
Palmerston's principles are. What I find is this :
Daring the time Lord Palmerston has been a mem-
ber of Parliament, before he became Prime Minister,
there have been thirteen Governments, and he was
a member of ten of them. He has been a member
of ten out of thirteen, and of two the most extreme
it is possible to conceive. He was a member of the
Government of the late Lord Grey, and he was a
member of the Government of Mr. Perceval, and I
never heard that he came to the smallest difference
with either of his chiefs. (Laughter.) Therefore,
I do not know what the principles of Lord Palmers-
ton are. I think nothing is more probable than
that he is a most agreeable and facile colleague. No

323

one can doubt that he is an excellent man of busi-
ness, and his extraordinary experience in public
offices must be of the greatest value to the public
service. (Cheers.) It is evident that he has no
ferocious rigidity of opinion on any point, and that
he makes no particular difficulty as to the conduct
of the Government. He left the Duke of Welling-
ton's Government not on account of any difficulty,
but because others left it. He assigned no other
reason. Other reasons may have been found afterwards,
but at the time he left there was no other reason. But,
although there can hardly be a better recommendation
for a colleague than to have this facility, this accom-
modating feeling, in respect to the various measures
which come under the consideration of the Cabinet
and Parliament, it seems to me the public have some-
thing else to look to. (Hear, hear.) What the
public have to look to is a fixedness of opinion on
public subjects, and, above all, a determination to
stand by it. (Hear, hear.) I know not what may
be Lord Palmerston's opinions on the subject of
Reform. I see what his opinions are now by the
vote which, unfortunately for his Government,
he has lately given. (Hear, hear.) But being
opposed to further reform, believing that the lower
we descend in search of a constituency, the more
inferior will be the representative we find, and being
satisfied that the public should look to the House of
Commons for the direction of opinion, and not else-
where, I am against any further alteration in the re-
presentation ; and having no security that Lord Pal-
merston will adhere to that principle, I would in-
finitely rather see the Government in the hands of an
uncompromising, sound old Whig like Lord Grey,
who said he would not be the shadow of a Minister,
than in the hands of a gentleman who goes in one

direction one day and another another day, and on
whose support it is perfectly impossible to calculate.
(Cheers.)

I will not detain your lordships further, but
I must say I view this war with China with the
greatest apprehension. I do not enter into it with
the same feelings with which I have entered into
other wars. The injustice connected with it weighs
down my mind. (Hear, hear.) When engaged in
the late war we were more thou once desired to ac-
knowledge our sins, to beg pardon for our offences,
and to ask the blessings of Heaven on our endea-
vours to maintain the interests of the country in a
just and necessary war. And it was a necessary war.
(Hear, hear.) We could not help it. However much
we disliked it, we were obliged to enter upon it. We
were justified then in hoping we might obtain the
blessing of Providence. But how can we ask Provi-
dence for its blessings in this war? We may, according
to the best experience we have, do all we possibly can
to alleviate the sufferings of our troops. We may,
by improved councils, do much more than seems at
present intended, to place our army in sufficient
strength to achieve success; but can we expect that
success will attend our endeavours from the con-
viction that we are working for a good purpose, and
that our cause is a just one? It seems to me that in
China money has been the only object kept in view.
What the present object of the Government may be
no one knows. (Hear, hear.) We hear of fighting
for English interests, but what I want to know is what
is the specific object of our army going to Canton ?
(Hear, hear.) We are endeavouring to force Dr.

324

Bowring into Canton, which I think is an imprac-
ticable thing, and in endeavouring to force Dr.
Bowring into Canton we are forcing tea out of every
cottage in England. (Cheers.) If we only import
two•thirds of the quantity of tea we were accustomed
to import, I fear that all the poorer classes may
have to go without tea. Not only do I not feel at all
satisfied as to the present objects of the Government,
but I want to know if they have not some further
object in view; I want to know if they are not going
to take advantage of this position of hostility to
endeavour to revise the treaty, as it is called ;
to force farther conditions on the Emperor of
China ; and, in short, to obtain the means of
making more money, for that seems the motive
of the whole proceeding, however bad it may
be in point of morality. (Rear, bear.)