The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-27 00:00:00

THE PRE S S, NOVEMBER f 7, 1858.

harbours as we had; bat the country should take care that
we proceeded in such a way that the ships which Louis
xanoleon built and the docks he had made should not
be dangerous to the safety and the liberties of Britain.
lie was glad to say that we had. been making lately
great exertions and improvements in our Cockyards, and
to cutting down old sailing ships which were now useless
and converting them into screws, which would be useful.
Economical members might get up and ask how it was
that the navy estimates were so much increased, but they
were only throwing dust in the eyes of the people, for they
knew perfectly well, or ought to know perfectly well, that
science had made a total change in all the principles of
nasal warfare. Steam had now been brought to such a
state of pet fection that foreign nations were able to equal
us. because that navy of ours, which was so magnificent
a few years ago, was now worth little or nothing. The
nhole system must be entirely changed, and, expensive as
tilai might be, we must make up our minds to pay for it.
1 his country must not be left is a state of undefence.
lie wanted no expense. He desired economy in carrying
ont these measures; but economy was not to be secured
hv pa ing off a fleet in 1857 and recommissioning the
same fleet in lssB. He trusted that the Government
never would again allow the navy to fall into a state of
inefficiency. It was that which had occasioned the loss
of money hitherto. France, seeing our slowness, set to
work to get ahead of us, and now we were spending
money to regain a position which we ought never to
hare lost.

In conclusion the gallant admiral referred to Count
Montalembert's pamphlet, and to the conduct of
France towards Portugal, which he condemned.
Mr. LOCKE, M.P., next addressed the meeting in
reference to his votes on various public questions
during the late session, and the proceedings termi-
nated with a vote of confidence in both members.

THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE ON NATIONAL
PROGRESS.
Ar a dinner given at Derby, on Tuesday last, to the
late mayor, Mr. J. G. Crompton, the Duke of Devon-
shire, in returning thanks for the toast of his health,
made the following remarks :

It is now upwards of twenty•seven years since I had the
honour of being elected in the County Hall by the free-
holders of the undivided county one of their repre-
sentatives in Parliament, the last member elected to
represent [the whole county at the eventful period which
just preceded the passing of the Reform Bill. Though
the intervening period has not, in general, been marked
by events of so exciting a character, yet it has been no
penod of stagnation or inaction. On this occasion any
reference to strictly political questions would be out of
Ogee, and I shall scrupulously abstain from all allusion to
meters of party interest. Putting, however, these aside,
I may justly say that the period of which I was speaking
has been marked by many striking characteristics which,
111 am not greatly mistaken, will render it one of the
most conspicuous and important in the future history of
our eountry. Our colonial empire has swollen to a msg•
nude and with au alacrity altogether unexampled. The
great railway eystetu of England has within that period
been created and wellnigh brought to completion. Com-
mute and manufactures have been developed to an ex-
tne,rdinsry degree. Agricultural improvement, if it has
not advanced with such extraordinary rapidity, has at least
not lagged far behind. We have bad, no doubt, our shares
‘.l vicissitudes, which must, more or less, be the lot of all
communities as well as individuals on this earth. We
have still many sore evils prevailing among us ; we have
much in our condition on which, if we exclusively fix oar
attention, it is not difficult for those who prefer to take a
poomy and disparaging view, to draw a melancholy picture
f our national prospects; ; but looking fairly and compre-
hensively at oar condition, we may well, I believe, chal-
lenge comparison with any nation of the earth, either in
this continent or in any other, in everything that most
nearly concerns either national or individual happiness.
Never was there a time in which persons of influence and
ability in every sphere of life, whether resident in town or
e`Aniry, were more disposed to unite and co-operate in all
measures tending to advance the national welfare, and
especially to ameliorate the condition of the working
classes. Never was there a time when there was a greater
anuetT to probe to the bottom and find most effectual
remedies for evils still rife amongst us—when a greater
de:tee of Christian and benevolent zeal was actively at
stotk amongst us.

THE RIGHT HON. SIDNEY HERBERT, M.P., who
presided at a meeting in aid of church missions in
Southern Africa, at Wilton, on Monday evening, after
referring to the interest awakened on the subject of
tee propagation of the Gospel in India, said :
We. hear discussions now as to what are the duties of
111* Luglish Government towards the native races in India
—whether or not our duty is that of neutrality in religion.
I have nothing to with India ; but this I must say, that a
moreunfortunate word was never used for the purposes
:"r.whieh we are met than that of neutrality. I do not
I:tlure that any Christian nation or any Christian man
(An ever be neutral upon the question of Christianity.
Wink
t Is meant, I apweliend, in Indio, is this : that in
dealing with the natives of that country, while we tax
I:,eto fur. the purpose of government, we must respect
fceltligs—we must not attempt to coerce or bribe
1.'`.14 thto belief. In India we have difficulties which
1
r'r'!ccliwr to a nation like ourselves. A Roman Catholic
'P.e hare no difficulty in the world in dealing
'.th. the question of religion in Jude.' They would z.t.
..r.ce coerce into belief—or coerce into a semblance of

belief ; but we are not only Christians, but we are Protes-
tant Christians, and all the political dogma which lies at
the bottom of all Protestantism, or at any rate the
natural deduction from it, is that of religious liberty.
e cannot and ought not attempt, through the superiority
of our civilization—through the force which adventitious
circumstances may have put into our hands—to compel
any class of men to accept our belief, however impressed
we may be—and as regards Protestantism, I hope we ever
shall be impressed—that it is the foundation of the liberty
and the happiness which we enjoy.
THE RIGHT HON. H. LABOLTHETIE, M.P., ex-Colo-
nial Secretary, in returning thanks for the borough
member; at a civic feast at Taunton, a few days ago,
thus alluded to the question of Reform : It had
been announced by her Majesty's Government that a
new Reform Bill would be introduced in the next
session of Parliament. For his own part, he had no
doubt that such would be the case, and it was hardly
possible but that this bill would materially affect
their position and interests as a constituted body.
Now, be thought it right to say to them that it would
be his duty to consider that measure not solely or
even principally as regards the constituency he had
the honour to represent, but he should consider it in
reference to its hearing upon the great interests of
the community. He would also say, that of the
nature and details of that bill he was profoundly
ignorant; he had no connection with the Government
which would bring it forward, and could form only
the vaguest conjectures of the form and colour it
would be. But he conceived that a measure which
would affect the future generations of England should
be regarded not as to whether this or that set of
men shall occupy the bench of office ; and he should
look upon it with every feeling of deference to the
wellbeing of the country, and not as a question which
pertains to a mere political partizan. He had no
wish whatever to see the constituencies of England
put up, as it were, to auction, to be obtained by the
highest, or, as it might be, by the most unscrupulous
bidder. But if that measure should appear to him
calculated to improve, purify, strengthen, and enlarge
our representative system, that bill should have his
support. If, on the other hand, it be merely a spe-
cious pretence—if it should appear to him not to be
calculated to produce that end for which alone the
representative system was of any value—namely, the
good order and good government of the country—he
should fearlessly oppose it.
A CABINET COUNCIL wasNheld on Tuesday at the
official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
in Downing-street. The Ministers present were the
Earl of Derby, the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, the
Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl
of Hardwicke, Mr. Secretary Walpole, the Earl of
Malmesieury, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, General Peel,
Lord Stanley, Sir John Pakington, the Right Hon.
J. W. Henley, and Lord John Manners.
THE ELECTION EXPENSES incurred by Lieut.-
Colonel the Hon. W. C. W. Coke, on his recent
return for East Norfolk, have been certified by the
election auditor to be 2,9821. 12s. 101. The ex-
penses of Sir Henry Stracey, the unsuccessful Con-
servative candidate, were 2,303/. 18e. 3d. Agency
and carriages for canvassing and conveying voters to
the poll form the heaviest items on both sides.
DIPLOMATIC CHANGES are announced by a morning
contemporary as follows :—" It is rumoured, and we
have reason to believe not without foundation, that
his Excellency Count Bernstorff will, before long,
quit his post as Minister of the Court of Berlin.
The Prussian Ministers at Paris and Vienna are,
it is said, also to be superseded. Count Karolyi has
left Chandos-house for Vienna, and is about to
assume a higher diplomatic post. It is stated that
his Excellency Count lieelm ansegge, who has for
many years past ably discharged the functions of
Minister of the Court of Hanover in London, is on
the eve of being recalled from his diplomatic duties."
One of the daily journals intimates that Lord
Napier is likely to be appointed to the British Em-
bassy at Berlin.

Boileau, Lawrence, Forster, and Dinning ; Captains
Harman, Fletcher, Waterman, and Ruggles, &o.
On the cloth being removed,
General INGLIS rose and spoke as follows Com-
rades and friends,—We have met here tonight to
commemorate the events ot• the past in a perfectly
private manner; but there is one toast, and one
only, which I must call on you to drink in solemn
silence before we part—" The Memory of Henry
Lawrence," but for whom every man hers would also
be sleeping in a bloody grave ; with " The Memory
of Henry Havelock," who, in the emphatic language
of Scripture. " laid down his life for his friends ;"
and " The Memory of all the Honoured Brave who
fell beside us in the Defence of Lucknow." In
solemn silence, all standing, comrades and friends.
When the silence occasioned by this affecting
appeal had been somewhat broken,
The gallant GENERAL again rose and said : Com-
rades and friends, I have received the thanks of Par-
liament ; I have been invested with the insignia of
the Bath by the gracious hand of her Majesty; I
have received the thanks of the Government of India ;
I ;have received the thanks of the Government of
Nova Scotia, my native country, and have been pre-
sented with a sword by that body. All these great
honours and distinctions I owe to no merit of my
own. I owe them all to the matchless courage and
endurance of those I see around me, and not to them
i only, but to our surviving comrades now serving in
the East, and to those who fell in the struggle. I
have brought the sword with me to-night in the
thought that those who earned it for me might like
to see the trophy. And for this and for all my
honours I thank you from my heart, my friends and
comrades. (The gallant general, who appeared
powerfully affected, then sat down amid the rapturous
applause of his auditors.)
After the cheering had in some measure subsided,
Major DINNING, the senior military officer present,
rose and said : On the part of the garrison, I feel
bound to disclaim the merit which General Inglis,
with that rare self-abnegation which always charac-
terized him, attributes to them and not to himself.
Every man here knows that to the incessant and nn•
tiring personal supervision of General Inglis is to be
attributed the final success of the defence ; and to
him, therefore, as much as to any other man he has
named, those present are indebted for their lives I
therefore call upon you all to drink the health of our
gallant commander, with three times three.
The toast was drunk with the utmost enthusiasm,
and, General Inglis having briefly responded, the
meeting terminated.

We understand that the gallant general returns to
the East by the steamer of the 4th proximo.

AN IMPORTANT IMPROVEMENT has recently been
introduced into the system of discharging from the
set vice soldiers who have completed the time for
which they enlisted, which has given great satisfac-
tion to all ranks of men in the army. In future
the troops who have completed their time will, ander
certain regulations, be discharged at the head-
quarters of their respective regiments or depot
battalions without being forwarded to thA invalid
establishment at Chatham for that purpose. This
arrangement is another of the many boons which
have been conferred on the soldier by the present
Commander-in-Chief, and since it has come into
operation a number of old soldiers, who were
anxious to return to their native places, have been
discharged without having to go through the ordeal
of a surgeon's inspection at Chatham.
THE PRINCE OF WALES'S EQUERRIES are appointed
as follows :—Brevet-Major Robert James Lindsay,
Sects Fusilier Guards ; Brevet-Major Charles
Christopher Teesdale, C. 8., Royal Artiilery ; Captain
George Henry Grey, Ride Brigade ; Extra Equerry :
Viscount Valletort, Captain in the Cornwall Rangers