The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-24 00:00:00

election nttttigenct.

STASIFORD.—The election of Sir Stafford Henry
Northcote to the seat vacated by Mr. Inglis on his
elevation to the office of Lord Justice Clerk of Scot-
land, took place at the Town•hall on Saturday last.
The candidate was nominated by Dr. Pratt and
seconded by Mr. Alderman Althorp, and no opposi-
tion being offered was declared duly elected. Sir
Stafford Northcote returned thanks in an address of
considerable length. Having expressed the diffidence
be felt in succeeding such distinguished men as had
represented Stamford, he proceeded to refer to India
and several other topics of the day. The Conserva-
tives, he said, had passed through a period of con-
siderable trial and annoyance ; he hoped they were
now coming to one which would be a time of cheer.
fulness and of progress. It was anything but a
pleasant task to have to do that which the Conserva-
tive party had had for some time to do—namely, to
present themselves in the light merely of a balance-
weight, in order to prevent hasty and immoderate
progress, and thereby to take up a position which
had a tendency to become one of mere obstruction.
It was necessary, undoubtedly, that there should be
those who were able and willing to perform the dis-
agreeable duty to which he alluded ; but it was a
very disagreeab e duty, and one which it was not
good for a party to have to perform continually—
that of having to carp and cavil at measures pro-
posed for consideration, without having an oppor- ,

-
tunity of introducing measures themselves, because it
put them in a false position, and placed them bef,re
the country as if their only object was to obstruct
progress. The consequence was, in point of fact,
that the term " Conservative " had come, in
shit
minds of many persons, to be almost synonymous
with "obstructive ; " so that we found some people
regarding it as absurd to talk of such a thing as
" Conservative progress." They could not unilvr-
stand it. They said that Conservatives, when they
talked of progress, were either hypocritical and
endeavouring to pass themselves off as *something
which they were not, or else they were truckling to
the times or endeavouring to deceive us by false
pretences. But if we looked at the truth, we should
find that it was not, so at all. There was nothing
whatever in the spirit of Conservatism that was
opposed to progress. On the contrary, it was an
essential part of the true Conservative spirit that it
should be progressive—progressive with the times
and with the wants of the times. The hon. baronet
then referred to Parliamentary Reform and the ex.
tension of the suffrage, and in reference to the ques•
tion of universal suffrage deprecated the position to
which it had reduced France. The French Govern.
meat had the power of manipulating and controlling
the masses to such an extent that it became preen.
tally a despotism. Therefore they had universal
suffrage as the base and a despotism above ; and that
was the state of things offered to us in England. It
was because he desired to see carried out a Si stein which
would give a fairer play to local and municipal govern
ment that lie hailed with confidence the accession of
the present Ministry to power, because he believed
that they wou:d introduce measures tending in that
direction. Again, he would say, with regard to the
power of the Executive Government, that it was of the
greatest importance that we should endeavour to
strengthen that power as much as possible ; but we
were not to strengthen it merely by leaving it un•
fettered to conduct this or that business in its ovn
manner, but by enabling it to get the best men and to
employ them in the best way, and thus to manage its
affairs in the most simple and straightforward
manner. It had been his lot to be employed in in-
vestigating many of our public offices, and to consider
how they might be made more efficient than hereto-
fore ; and he hal been fortunate enough, in con-
junction with one or two very able colleagues with
whom he had had the honour to be associated, to be
able to introduce into certain departments of the
Government certain small improvements which had
tended to ameliorate the working of those depart-
ments. But while thus engaged he had seen enough
to convince him that a great work still remained to
be done—to simplify the duties of many offices con-
nected with the administration of public affairs, and
to prevent unnecessary delays and the waste of timeand money. The hon. baronet, in conclusion, said
wo were now very near the end of the session, and
Government would have the advantage of the recess,
and lie looked forward with hope and confidence to
the measures which were to be expected next year.
Those he had the honour to represent might depend
upon this, that he should be fully anxious to give
effect by his votes to proceedings in Parliament cal-
culated to further those principles which he had
endeavoured to sketch out—that lie was not one of
those who would hold one kind of language here and
another kind of language there—that he had always
been desirous to see carried out the views which he
had attempted to express, to see progress among the
people, and to see our system of constitutional liberty
preserved and at the same time extended ; and he
trusted that they would not find him wanting in
attention to the duties of the post to which they had
tl,at day been kind enough to call him.