The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-23 00:00:00

LORD BROCOHAN'S ADDRESS.

Lord Bacot-max, in the coarse of his address, mid—
That I should once more preside over our Congress,
of so often filling the otßa., is a matter of some
regret, considering the many younger and abler
members whose turn is thus deferred, and my own meek-
tios had been taken to refuse the honour. But when it was
represented to me that my old friends and constituents in
this great county strongly desired it, no choice was left but
to sunsuit. Of the honours and distiuctions with which •
long life Las been blessed, the very highest must ever be
reckoned my electron to represent Yorkshire, the lest time
that it was fated to choose members for the whole webe
vided province; sod there still lies those of my colleagues
in othee, whokoow Low Litter was the pang of exchangiog
that proud position for the highest office of the S. de, Low
reluctantly the step was taken. how firm the determination
of refusal, and to what urgent remonstrances suhmission
was yielded. And now in revisiting the scenes of former
years, the pleasure naturally arising is sadly damped by the
blanks. the ‘l.sinal Clanks, that meet the eve wheresoever it
is cast around. Let me avoid this retrospect, too painful to
bear, by at ono& plunging iuto the affairs of the hour:

Olipring of woe. a parent of our ease,
The toil which teaches pleasure's self to please
Distils the grief that spurns direct control.
And stills the raging tempest of the soul
And now we are met on the very threshold of our eighth
assemblage by the complaint oftentimes before repeated,
that so little has been done glace our last congress. Need
I again espial° the grounds of this impatience, and the
gross fallacy which it involves! To say nothing of the
necessity that all improvements to be safe must begradual,
experience being the great teacher, but also the corrector
of errors and oversights, we greatly underrate the progress
actually made, not only from oar impatience that the
movement is not more rapid, but from our fancy ever
dwelling on that more rapid rate, as they who move along
the side of the river wholly miscalculate the swifteess
with which they see the vessel borne down the stream,
say, sometimes behave it statioesry or borne haikwards.
A most important measure has lately been adopted
at the instance of oar council, with regard
to the education of the middle classes. The
council, taking this important subject into their eon-
sideration, appointed a deputation upon it to wait on the
minister, and it has since been announced is parliament that
a commission shall forthwith be issued on the whole sub-
ject of middle-class education in compliance with the re-
commendation of the couneil. Ars important discussion took
place in April on the admission of girls to the university
local etaminatioos. It wee unanimously agreed that this is
most assemble. and the committee formed for promoting this
object are very desirous that it should be included under the
bead of thaw matters referred to the commission for in-
quiry. There Call be no doubt that it will. The object
is to have those emuninations opened to females. The im-
portance of tame to persons who desire to follow the line of
governesses and schoolmistresses is manifest; and it was
stated at the meeting, on the authority of our worthy col-
league, Mr. Hawes. chairman of the Society of Arts, that
women of a humbler clew who, having permed the examina-
tion of that society, have obtained lusterless cer-
tificates, had been able at once to obtain situations
as housekeepers in large establishments, iratecd of
baring to work their way op through different deems,
of domestic service, At a time when great ezertiona are
making by public spirited penes*, ladls eve...le:iv, to give
increased facilities of female employment, surely this dhow
lion in tbeamocietion has been most opportune. His lordship
then referred to the Post-oibee savings treks, to privet*
bill registmtioo, the treatment of oosvicts, the working
men's co. king depots and co-operative societies,
The noble lied then made a rapid digression to foreign affairs.
That this country, be said, will ever be ready to benefit by
the experience of other nations, no one can doubt. What a
scene of misery and of Clime does the recent history and
present condition of America present to the friends of social
science, more horrid than soy OW known is 1:11,:efe, let us
say Christian times • and with this sad peculiarity, that the
whole people, instead of merely permitting, as in other
cases, the crimes of their rulers, are themalires the active
sad willing spate in the work of merciless daughter—of
such wholesale bloodshed as never before disgraced
the name of man. quo: eat iota tam infests ira, queen
Cper tot acies fuses dogma expleri non potuere I Add'
ue populetionem outworn ; iooendia se
minas omelet farm ignique vastata, hisceee ura espleri
non potuit': (Liv, vu. du.) How the blame fir the
three horrors ahould be distributed, it boots cot to inquire.
Some good men have been deceived by the notion that sla-
very is the cause of the war—duped by the pretext that
the North fights to free the slave, whereas their emancipa-
tion edict was a mere belligerent measure, and an after-
thought ; they (as Bishop Wilberforce said) caring so more
for the freedom of the black than they do for that of the
white. But it has been reserved for the later act of the
tragedy ti see that government, when destitut •of other
troops, drive herds of the unhappy peewee to slaughter
with is s more remorse than sportsmen feel in clearing
a preserve. Vet certain though it be that the North
did int make war to free the slave, and tt.at this could
mot have entered into their consideration when they
began the contest for preventing the secession, it is
so less certain that the maintetabee of aLivery—their
detectable lestitution—waspeetly the object of the South
fighting for their iodepeudeuce ; and the friend of humanity,
although feeling that we are not entitled to require a Men
sudden entanapation then we ourselves effected in our colo-
nies, may yet earnestly hope that out of this Clued contest
and its countless evils, the mercy of as all-ruling l'tuvulence
may draw the good, contemplated by neither party, of giving
freedom to the ales-e. But whatever difference of opinion
may prevail regarding the origin of this lisgbtful civil war,
there ran be none as to the duty imposed on other nations rf
not taking part with either belligerent ; and its the coutday
ischeiduais was most properly warned by rr.clamation
against eulisting in either army, the enheeetueut of the
Foreign F:shistinent Act being held out as certain.
Every British subject is liable to its penaltiee who so
enlists, end that which is now a misdemeanour was for-
merly a felony, at one time puidsheide will. death. All nelw
serve in the army of either party are gnome. aid may be
prosecuted in the Cum tof queens Betch us if their enlist-
ments had been in au Leelieti county. Theref• re the Nerth
makes war upon the South by troops compered in part of
persons liable to prosecution for toe odellefl of enuatM&
end it was one of the gravest charges upon George IIL
that he employed Geruom mercenaries against tt:•• item-
pendence of America, though these Geri:onus Weis guilty of
no c Hetes ill !Arils themeelves to the service. The poor
Irish who thus sell themselves break tke law of tacir own
ootatiy in ortler to perpetuate in America :cc of
civ.l war. Wu :.re now is Yomk, the birthplace, it is cum-
mo;.l) beliet,d, of the but Christian emperor, Cc went:l6lw,
who litclide.l the ~, sped the religion ct the It ie
lamentelde to think that to this capital there has penetrated
the tallelit h i, one id the gost ni:sfott ate..l tie
present day, prevailing much more on the continent than is
these islands, by the elaborate end subtle efforts of its
victims, yet somewhat to be deplored among ourselves. The
friends of religion very justly complain of the mode and
manlier of these attacks., that they ore tot plain and open,
but covett and insidious ; casting doubts and raising sus-
picions, without such a direct assault as the religion itself
might meet and repel; nay sometimes proceeding from
persons who avow their belief, tat would I.I4UCe the subject
of it to such dimensions as left it unstable and tumpable of
defence. There are, however more open assailants;
and it is strange to find that while a ledy direct..
iag these are actually distributing tracts, conduct-
ing • periodical work, mid holdeg meetings
for debate, both in the southern counties, and even as far
north as Ediuburgh, there should be found at the same time
propegaton of spiritual visions, in which, as extremes often-
tames meet, those are prone to believe who have faith in
nothing else. Although some of the' most tedious of those
seliject to these delusions fsucy that true relig'on gains by
them as affording proofs of another world's eziatesece, it