The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-29 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MAY 29, 1858.

country. (Hear, hear.) In point of fact, that verdict has
been already given. (Hear.) Until that vote of censure
was brought forward we were receiving from the people of
England a fur and unimpassioned trial. We were ac-
cepted as a Government which, having taken office under
such difficult circumstances as I have described, and after
the peculiar exercise of the prerogative of the Crown, was
deserviog of a fair chance, and we were having a kindly
trial. Ido not believe that the great body of the people
of this country had any feeling but one, and that was a
general feeling for those who had acceded to office under
great difficulties, and who hpt sedulously and with devotion
endeavoured to perform their duty. (Hear, hear.) The
moment, however, that this motion was brought forward
and introduced in the speei.ii which was made upon that
occasion by the right hon. member for Oxford—from the
moment that the debate took place, the enlightened and
indignant mind of the people of England declared at the
moment, and in a manner which could not be mistaken,
what. its sense was of the conduct of certain public cha-
racters in those transactions; and if we had gone upon
the hustings—which there is very little doubts e should
have done before we should have fallen—l believe that the
overthrow of the cabal would have been one of the most
signal in history. (Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") Now,
this danger had been overcome by no unworthy manage.
ment or concession on our part. (Hear, hear.) It has
been overcome, not by the united efforts of friends in a
division, hut, upon the contrary, it has been overcome by
the intrinsic and in:ernal sense of wrongdoing which pre-
vailed in the ranks of our enemies. (Loud cheers.)
There is nothing like that last Friday evening in the his.
tory of the House of Comnisns. (Renewed cheers.) We
came down to the house expecting to divide at four o'clock
in the morning—I myself, with my armour buckled on,
prepared to deliver an address two hours after midnight—
and I believe ►hat, even with the consciousness of a good
cause, that is no mesa effort. (Hear.) Well. gentlemen,
we were all assembled, our benches with their serried
ranks seemed to rival those of our proud opponents,
when suddenly there arose a wail of distress—(laughter)
—but not from us. (Renewed laughter.) I can only
liken the scene to the mutiny of the Bengal army.
( Laughter.) Regiment after regiment, corps after corps,
general after general, all acknowledged that they could not
march through Coventry with her Majesty's Opposition.
( Roars of laughter. It was like a convulsion of nature
rather than any ordinary transaction of human life.
( Laughter.) I can only liken it to one of those earth-
quakes which take place in Calabria or Peru. (Laughter.)
There was a rumbling murmur—(laughter)—ii groan—
( laughterl—a shriek, a sound of distant thunder. No
one knew whether it came from the top or the bottom of
the house. (Laughter.) There was a rent, a fissure in
the ground, And then a village disappeared--(laughter)—
then a tall tower toppled down, and the whole of the Op-
position benches became one great dissolving view of
anarchy. (Loud cheers ar,d laughter.) Are these the
people whom you want to govern the country—(" No, no ")
people in whose camp there is anarchy—( Hear, hear)—
between whom there is discord on every point, and who
are not even united by the common bond of wishing to
seize upon the spoils of office? (Cheers and laughter 1
What we have done I have, 1 hope, placed before you with
no undue arrogance—(Hear, hear)—but what they intend
to do no one has had the audacity to intimate. ( Hear,
hear.) They say that we have no policy when we are
building up an empire, and yet they shrank from giving
any opinion upon the document which was the subject of
nights of protracted discussions. ( Hear, hear.) Under these
circuinstartces my meeting you here today, having, as I
before stet -d, accepted the invitation as a private member
of Parliament, and not as a member of a Government,
is to me a source of great congratulation, for it gives me
an opportunity after these remarkable occurrences of ad-
dressing a large body of my countrymen connected with
me by close and ancient ties cf public confidence and
private friendship, and of giving them an account of my
stewardship as a Minister for three months. ( Hear, hear.)
I again ask you, then, and I ask the people of this country,
—" Will you stand by the Queen's Ministers against a
cabal ?" (" Hear, hear," and " Yes, yes.") If the country
decides to stand by us, and to extend to us permanently
that generous confidence, instead of tiat which perhaps
has temporarily arisen from a sense of the injustice
which we have experienced, we shall endeavour, with all
the means at our command, to retain that confidence
by intro acing such measures as in cur opinion are
demanded by the necessities of the State, and our study will
he constantly to promote the welfare of the people of this
country. (Hear, hear.) With regard to our foreign rela-
tions, we shall still pursue that determined, but yet prudent
and conciliatory system which, while it will in our opinions
maintain peace, will cio so w'th honour. ( Hear, hear.)
We shall endeavour in the management of our finances to
reduce taxation, while at the same tune our measures will
duly respect the maintenance of public credit. ( Hear,
hear.) We shall pursue in India that policy with which I
believe the late debate has made you familiar, because we
believe that it is the only polic: by which we can retain
that empire, and we ought to wish to retan it by con•
sidering the happiness of those 180,1100,000 of persons who
have in spirit long been subjects of the Queen, and who
now by the literal letter of the law will owe her an un-
divided allegiance. ( Hear, hear.) NVe shall endeavour
to obtain and to retain that confidence by temperately ad-
dressing ourselves to the solution of all those difficult
questions which have too long agitated and disunited
the commonve-alth in which we live. We hope by the
measures which we shall bring forward, whether relating
to legal reform—and upon that head our measure is
prepared—or to social reform, which demand the at-
tention of any Minister, or whether relating to those
constitutional improvements which all wise men who
are lovers of their country would wish to see effected
in such a manner that they should be improvements
and not mere changes—( Hear, hear)—whatever may be
the character of those measures, we will not shrink from

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bringing forward such as we shall conceive to be the best
adapted for the solution of the difficulty. But, gentlemen,
we shall not be able to do so unless we are supported by
the confidence and good feeling of the people of England.
( Hear, hear ) We have been honoured by the confidence
of the Crown in a manner not merely formal, and we have
accepted the responsibility of office at a great emergency,
and after the deliberate expression of opinion on the part
of our gracious sovereign that our acceptance or office was
public duty trout which we could nut shrink. (Hear,
hear., Having employed the brief penoil during which we
have been a Government in managing public affairs in the
manner I have indicated, I think that we have a right to
appeal to the public and to the country generally to sanc-
tion the selection of her Majesty and to support us by the
influence of public opinion. (Hear, hear.) To that opinion,
after the late stirring scenes in the House of Commons,
upon the part of myself and my colleagues I appeal with
diffidence, and yet at the same time with confidence—
with diffidence beeau,e 1 know that the present difficulties
may require for their solution powers greater than those
which we possess ; but with confidence, because 1 Lave
the greatest reliance ou tie generosity and justice of the
people of England.
The right hon. gentleman resumed his seat amid
loud and long-protracted cheering, waving of hats
and handkerchiefs, and other manifestations of
sympathy.
The health of the Chairman was proposed by the
Duke of Buckingham, and re4porled to; and, sonic
other toasts having been given, the party separated
about nine o'clock.

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