The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

' pated advantages. I doubt whether the literal ful-
filment of the Treaty of Pekin will ttnid to augment
our trade with Canton, which has increased so largely
within the last few years ; and I doubt whether the
best means for gaining admission into the interior of
the country is the bombardment of a large town and
the massacre of its unotiending inhabitants.
My lords, I have now gone through the topics
which are adverted to in the Speech. It is not my
intention, nor do I think that it is upon general
grounds advisable, to move an amendment which
might interfere with the unanimity with which the
house would otherwise pass the Address. While I
rejoice, however, in the prosperity of the country
which is announced in the Speech, and which, with
some exceptions, I believe to be a correct represen-
tation of the case, I cannot but see in the foreign
policy of this country, which I regret to find occupies
so large a space in the Speech, another unfortunate
repetition of that meddling spirit and uncalled for
interference with foreign countries which has so often
characterised the previous proceedings of the noble
viscount at the bead of the Government, which can
not raise our character or procure us friends in
foreign countries, and which will interfere by its per
petual disturbance of our commercial relations with
that which I trust will long be the growing and in-
creasing prosperity of this great country. My lords,
I cannot approve the course which has been pursued
ny the Government in its foreign policy ; but I for-
bear from embodying the opinions which I have ex•
pressed in any amendment, because I trust that they
will be modified by the papers which I presume her
Majesty's Government will shortly lay before ,Par-
liament. ([be noble earl resumed his seat amid
loud cheering.)

SPEECH OF MIL DISRAELI,

The SPEAKER having put the Address from the
chair,
Mr. DISRAELI said,—l confess, sir, that when I
listened to the speech of the hon. mover of the
Address—who has to night spoken with an ability
which, from the manner in which he had formerly
addressed you, did not at all surpri:e me—(cheers)—
I was for some time inclined to believe that the hon.
baronet had in his possession a copy of a Queen's
Speech very different from that which I had had the
opportunity of perusing, and which, until that mo-
ment, I had supposed t' be an authentic document-
The hon. baronet informed me that the Speech which
was on this occaiion delivered by the Royal Com-
missioners contrasted very favourably with the ad•
dresses to which we have for the last two or three
years listened on similar occasions. For example,
that it conveyed to the house the gratifying informs.
tion that her Majesty had received from all the great
powers of Europe assurances of their continued
friendship and goodwill ; but that is an expression
which I have not found in the copy of the Speech
which has been placed before me. The Speech de-
scribed by the hon. baronet also premised to the
people of this country, as I caught from his lips, a
reduction of taxation. That also is a promise which
unfortunately has been omitted, I am afraid from
some sinister motive, from the copy of the Speech
for which until this moment I was grateful to the
distinguished person to whom I am indebted for it.
(Cheers.) The Speech quoted by the hon. baronet
also promised a series of measures of domestic
amelioration—the necessary consequence of our en-
joying the blessings of peace ; but no such promise
is held out in the Speech which I bare read to-day.
It is often said that a Queen's Speech is not generally
so instructive or so impressive a document as an
expression of opinion, or a statement of facts from
such a quarter, and attended by such circumstances,
might naturally be expected to be; but I confess
that it seems to me in the Speech delivered by the
Royal Commissioners to-day there is enough to set
the people of this country a thinking, and to produce
a very great impression upon the public opinion of
these kingdoms.
It is hardly a year, sir, since we indulged the idea
—little dreaming that it was a delusive one—that we
had terminated a great struggle, and by its termina-
tion had laid the foundation of a prospect of peace,
probably more favourable on the whole than had
heen offered to this country since the settlement of
1,45. Let the house for a moment recal to its re-
collection the circumstances under which the Treaty

SATURDAY,

of Paris was concluded. Our foe, deemed to be,
and who had proved himself so powerful, had been
completely baffled in the project of aggression and
aggrandisement which he had contemplated and
attempted to accomplish. It has been said—l
know not with how much authority—that the late
Emperor of Russia had declared that he would not
accede to the terms of peace which were at one
period of the war offered to him until his last man
and his last rouble were spent. To that state the
Russians were in fact reduced. Great as may have
been their want of the " sinews of war," their ex-
haustion with regard to men was still more decided.
Our foe was therefore utterly discomfited and de-
feated, and yet h 3 retired from the contest with
dignity and without the humiliation which under
such circumstances ha might have been expected to
experience. I know that at the time there were
many persons who alleged these facts and circum-
stances as reasons which should make us disapprove
the settlement which had been come tc, and as being
very little favourable to that tranquillity which we
had gained at so great a sacrifice; but, in my opinion,
they were circumstances eminently favourable to the

maintenance
of peace. Russia had been defeatedi n
her object. That object had been disapproved by
the mast eminent of her statesmen. Its attainment
had been attempted in a manner which accorded
with the strong character of her late sovereign, and
you may say that in the tomb of the Emperor
Nicholas his policy had been interred. By a fortu-
nate combination of circumstances, the death of the
Emperor and the heroic defence of Sebastopol at
once put an end to that policy, and permitted the
Russians to see its termination without any loss of
their self-respect. If the Russians had been humi.
liated, if they had felt that that contest had
diminished the respect generally entertained by
Europe for their national character, they would have
been uneasy in their new position, and you might
have found in that uneasiness the elements of future
discord, and even the cause of future wars ; but the
fact that the termination of that struggle, conclusive
as it was in favour of our policy, was one not humi-
hating to Russia, was an additional reason that the
sincerity of her desire for peace was not to be ques-
tioned, and that her inclination and her interest
were the same.

Well, sir, looking to the condition of the two great
military empires which occupy the centre of Europe,
we found that probably at no period were the arts of
peace more cultivated in those countries than they
were even during the war. Both in France and in
Austria great works were prosecuted, great banking
establishments were founded, the application and
distribution of capital occupied the attention of the
most influential classes, and even the mitigation of
the effects of commercial panics was in both countries
much discussed and considered. If such were the
dispositions of these empires while war was being
waged, we had a right to suppose that when hostili-
ties were concluded they would prosecute these
pursuits with increased vigour and determination. As
to our relations with the United States of America,
notwithstanding the squabbling and blustering which
have prevailed upon that subject, I should suppose
that no sane man ever doubted that they were deeply
and decidedly amicable. No one supposed that war
would break out between this country and America,
o.- that the United States were about to declare war
with any other great power of Europe.
If this was the condition of these four great
powers, what was that of our own country' Were
we in a position which tempted us to engage in any
fresh war? We had an empire open to our people
such as had never before in our history been opened
to them. We were founding au immense colonial
empire on a scale unknown to the history of man—
an empire of illimitable dimensions and of inexhaus-
tible resources. We had open to our citizens a career
which secures all the excitement and enterprise of
war without any of its eels and calamities. Under
these circumstances I should think that any man
whose opinion was worth having would have said
that, at the period of which I ant speaking, there
was a sounder foundation and a surer prospect of
permanent tranquillity than had been offered to this
country since the settlement of ISIS. That, sir, is
hardly a sear ago, and I want to know why we have
been disappointed. I( that view was a sound one,
the country had a right to expect that we should see
the consequences of such a state of affairs. We had
a right to suppose that her Majesty's Ministers would
have weaned the mind of this country from the ex-
citement which war engenders ; that they would no
longer have permitted public attention to be diverted
and distracted from the consideration of domestic
affairs, and that well-matured and considerable mea-
sures of economical administrative improvement
would have Leen prepared during the recess and sub-
mitted to the consideration of Parliament. (Hear,
hear.) We might have looked for that which is
supposed to be the necessary consequence of peace—
the mitigation of public burdens—(cheers),—and
might bare expected that the capital and labour of