The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-18 00:00:00

Tll E PRESS, SEPTEMBER 18, 1858.

894

The CHAIRMAN next proposed " The Health of the
Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese," and in doing so
expressed the great pleasure he felt in witnessing
the interest which the ciergy now took in those agri-
nitural gathericgs, being as he was quite aware of
he great benefits which the labouring classes de-
7ived from the constant intercuurse they had with
the clergy.

The Rev. Mr. MOULD, vicar of Tamworth, re-
sponded, and expressed his gratification at being
present at the meeting, knowing as he did the great
advantages which such associations conferred on the
labouring classes by teaching and training them as
skilled labourers.

Mr. NEWDEGATE, on rising to propose the next
toast, was received with loud cheers from all parts of
the room. The hon. gentleman said :
Sir, permit me, in the first place, standing here at Tam-
worth, to convey to you the deep satisfaction with which I
view this assemblage—on a site where for some time the

shadows of past differences have been lengthened far
beyond the measure of their appropriate day ; and let me
congratulate you, ladies, that you are here, as yon ever are,
the harbingers of peace. (Cheers.) I would that I could
speak to the whole town of Tamworth to tell them how
glad I am to see that those of their neighbours who are
engaged in cultivating the soil have again come here to
hold out to the sons of commerce the hand of friendship.
No time could be more appropriate for this meeting than
the present. It has pleased Providence to grant to the
agriculturists of this country. notwithstanding the present
somewhat inconvenient drought, a yield in the cereal
crops which bids fair to remunerate them for the skill and
enterprize they have displayed in the cultivation of their
farms. But there is an old adage, and that is that farmers are
never happy unless they have got something to grumble at.
The real answer to that is, that they can silent to grumble
where commerce finds it more prudent to hold her tongue.
( Laughter.) But, even if commerce were not so prospe-
rous as it was, still I think it well that they should
come here and tender the hand rot friendship with
their best wishes that the co-operation of agriculture may
tend to support commerce, and that unity of interest, which
is the strength of every nation, may again prevail, and be
exemplified in the union between Tamworth and its
neighbours. The particular toast which I have to propose
to you on the present occasion is " The House of Lords."
(Cheers.) In other countries you may find representative
assemblies elected more or less according to the will of
the people. In other nations you will find Sovereigns with
power more or less absolute or more or less controlled, bat
in England alone you wilt find a balance of power, which
is established by the existence of three co—ordinate estates,
that of the Sovereign, the House of Lords, and the House
of Commons. The House of Lords has often stood true
to its functions as the appointed arbiter between the way-
wardness or misrepresentation of the will of the people
and the discretion of the Sovereign. Often has that house
interposed its independence, which is its most glorious
characteristic, to stay the arbitrary invasions of the Crown
or check the wanton impulses of the people. (Cheers.)
Depend upon it that the debt which England owes to
its House of Lords is far greater than those who think
lightly can estimate. I believe that the House of Lords is
independent because it is hereditary, and it is that, there-
fire, which gives it its true value. The ladies must ever
feel deeply interested in everything that is hereditary.
You, ladies, know the power of first impressions upon the
dawning mind. Those ladies who have by their own free
choice become peeresses, the wives and mothers of peers,
have throughout many generations had a direct responsi-
bility cast upon them, for they hate had the first moulding
of the minds of our future hereditary legislators ; and the
annals of this country prove that the peeresses of the
kingdom are entitled to no small share in that long vista
of honours which the history of the House of Lords
presents from the days of Runnymede to the present time.
I beg to propose " The Health of the House of Lords,"
lamenting that we should have been deprived of the pre-
sence of the distinguished members who have been pre-
vented attending by illness ; but I ask you to drink this
toast, because the House of Lords is a great Christian
institution in England, and the embodiment of the
independence of the country against arbitrary power.
Long do I hope it wil continue to he so, and long do I
hope that England will continue to be the sanctuary of
freedom and the glory of the world. (Cheers.)
'the hon. gentleman having resumed his seat amidst
loud applause,

Mr. WEBSTER proposed " The House of Com.
mons," which was receiverl with cheers. Having
given the lower branch of the Legislature, which
formed the subject of his toast, great credit fJr the
manner in which they had conducted the business
of the country, adverting to the use which France
might possibly maks of her fortifications, Mr. Web-
ster said:—

They might be meant for peace, but they looked much
more likely for war. They would remember that war
could not be carried on without the sinews, and he thought
the visit of the House of Commons to Cherbourg would
be very likely to he a means of obtaining those sinews.
( Hear, hear.) When the estimates came before them
next session, he thought there would be very little cavil•
ling st granting the necessary votes for our coast defences.
(" Hear, hear," from Mr. Spooner, and cheers.) If the
national defences were properly attended to, he thought
the visit of the House of Commons to Cherbourg would
not be without its use. (Hear, hear.) Let ns keep up
our defences, and it was a matter of indifference whether
L. harbours meant peace or war, because he was convinced

that the best way to maintain peace was to be in a state of
constant preparation for war.
Mr. Fou.:Y, M.P. for South Staffordshire, in
acknowledging the toast on behalf of the House of
Commons, thus touched on the topic introduced by
its proposer :

With respect to the late visit of the House of Commons
to Cherbcurg, he thought many of the observations
recently made by members of Parliament extremely
injudicious and mischievous. Whether Cherbourg were
a menace or not it was now an accomplished fact, and
must be treated by us in a businesslike manner. He
expected that John Bull would be called upon to dip his
hands deeply into his pockets. Some provision must be
made for the defence of the country, and he had sufficient
confidence in the House of Commons as the representative
of a brave and free people to believe that they would vote
any sum that was required either to keep np a Channel
fleet or to put our coast defences into such a position
that they might at any time be able to resist a foreign
enemy. The principle of liberty was too deeply rooted in
the hearts and minds of English people to be easily
extirpated, and he was quite certain that if any such
attempt were made as that which had been hinted at, the
whole people of England would rise as one man to defend
the national honour. (Cheers.)
Mr. HARDY proposed the health of Mr. Spooner,
observing that they all admired pluck, and few would
admit that Mr. Spooner had not got plenty of it. He
had represented Warwickshire now for many years,
and had always maintained the character of a
thoroughly honest man.
Mr. SPJONER, in returning thanks, said that he
hoped he should keep his character for honesty to
the end of his days. He had always looked upon the
agricultural interest as one of the mose important
in the country, and it was therefore with the deepest
interest that he had watched the enormous strides
the science of agriculture had made of late years,
for he said, without any fear whatever, that upon the
improvement and success of agriculture depended
in a great measure the success, the prosperity, and
the happiness of the empire of Great Britain itself.
Mr. NEWDEGATE then addressed the company in
an effective speech, in proposing the health of " Tha
Labouring C asses." In the coarse of his remarks
the hon. gentleman said:—
He was sure that the welfare of the labouring classes
was an object yhich the whole meeting had at heart, and
that the toasdowhich he was about to give needed little
recommendation at his hands. As a country gentleman
he was proud of having had from his youth real, true, and
intimate friends amongst those classes. (Cheers.) He had
learned—as must all who were brought into contact with
them—to honour their good sense and their contentment.
and to feel that amongst them there were many intellects
which needed but cultivation to advance to the highest
position. All could not hope to be in such positions, but
the true secret of England's greatness and contentment
was that the road upwards hod never been barred against
the lanourer. (Cheers.) He valued learning and educa-
tion as much as any man, but he was sure that his friend
the vicar of Tamworth would agree with him that the light
without wnich all learning is but folly had not been. first
granted to the learned, and that it still shone brightly
among many whose want of literary attainments we might
regret but must not despise. He proposed the health of
the labourers as of those who had proved themselves the
best guardians of the interests of all whose success
depended on their strength, contentment, and goodwill.
Mr. Newdegate having resumed his seat amidst loud
cheers, several other toasts of a local and personal
character were afterwards proposed, and the pro-
ceeding-., which were of a highly satisfactory
character, were brought to a close.

MAJOR BERESFORD, M.P., AND MR. DU
CANE, M.P., IN ESSEX.
A CONSERVATIVE fog ival was held on Friday at
Walton-on-the•Naze, at which the R;ght lion. W.
Beresford and Mr. Du Cane, the members for the
northern division of the county of Essex, were present.
In the afternoon a dinner took place in Kent's Hotel,
which was presided over by Mr. J. Barker, of
Bamsey,who was supported by the two hon. members,
and by a large number of the gentry and farmers of
the district.

In responding to the toast " The Members for the
Northern Division of the County of Essex," which
was drunk amid loud cheers, Major BERESFORD
acknowledged with gratitude the kind reception of
his name and his deep satisfaction that his conduct
as a representative had met with the approbation of
such a constituency. He then proceeded to say:—
Regarding this meeting more as a social and friendly
meeting than a political union, I do not propose to trouble
you with a long political oration. It will, however, ever be
fresh in my memory that my first introduction to the county
of Essex was through the Tendring hundred, by a portion
of which I was returned to represent the borough of Har-
wich. That first gave me an opportunity of making your
personal acquaintance and of showing that T was a friend
of the country interest. It is now eighteen years since I
first appeared on the hustings at Harwich, and upon that
occasion I gave utterance to sentiments which at this hour,
as your representative, I do not feel ashamed of. I re•
member distinctly that the chief burden of what I then said
'a as that I was firmly attached to the Protestant institutions

of the country, and that I would do all in my power to
promote the prosperity of the agticultural interes:.
Eighteen years have since elapsed, and I still entertain the
same opinions.
Adverting to the prodtetive harvest in the distrie
the tight lion. gentleman said :

There is no event in the coarse of the whole twelv
months which more gratifies the heart of a true 1...604
man—more adds to his comfort, more increases his means,
and does more general benefit to the community—than fin;
gathering in of a large and abundant harvest in good order.
The prices, though lower than they were, but I trust as.
low as they will be, are not likely to be very mach affccted
by foreign importations, for we know already that the
harvests on many parts of the Continent are very inferior,
and that the accounts from America are not so cheering ,
the Americana could wish. Therefore, I trust that those
who receive good ricks will have high and good prices for
them ; that you will be enabled to meet your landl'rds
with pockets full of money, and that whet, you retort,'
your homes you will still find them tolerably MU. Thera
is one other remark which I feel called upon to make
before I conclude. We hove met here to-day as a party r
Englishmen, and the first toast we drank was the health 1
our gracious Sovereign, a toast which, I need scarcely add,
was drunk with enthusiasm. Your worthy chairman told
you that such was always the case, but that is a mistake
though it is the only mistake he has committed to-day, fu
we have heard iu one part of her Majesty's dominions tha
health of tile Queen put in the background, and the health
of the Pope substituted. lam certain that such condor
must excite the indignation of every true Protestant in ti
land, and I trust these gentlemen—if gentleruem the)
are—will never, after the general indignation which their
conduct has aroused throughout the country, dare to repeat
it. That a foreign cardinal should come to this country t
be toasted and feasted, and should permit the health oil
sovereign to he drunk at the tail of the Pope of Rome,
an insult to English Protestantism and loyalty; and it i
only by every country meeting showing how enthusiastically
it will ever drink the health of the Queen, that such people
can be taught and told what is their duty.
Mr. Du CANE, M.P., having returned thanks
the honour which had been done him, and alluded
to some matters of purely local interest, proceeded
to say :

l
cart linty
must e
zhonestlyy confessthtahta, as
it a
should yboeung askniedeme
to gig
a little account of myself, and therefore I did come here
to talk politics, and, what's more, I mean to talk politie
I cannot help congratulating you in having refrained froL
holding this meeting, as was origivally intended, last year,
for we are now met together under somewhat briglite
auspices. Hail we met last year, we should have fount
Ministry in power boasting an overwhelming majorii
but seeming to me to keep that majority in a kind of me.
merle trance by a policy of liberal theory but very °bane-
nye practice. We meet you now with a Ministry r
power which boasts no overwhelming majority, but shin,.
calls for a fair trial of its measures ; and 'hough there
may be some among those measures from which 1 indiv'
dually dissent, I think the tiovernment may fairly clan
to have based them on principles of soucd and temperate
Conservative progress. If we had met you last year. -
should have met you in the full horrors and first di
reality of the Indian crisis, but we meet you now when
last smouldering remains of rebellion are rapidly yield'
to the invincible valour of the British soldier, atd wit
measure in full operation which, having been discus.
and improved in its details with a total absence of all party
feeling, now affords us some guarantee for the stability
the future government of India.
Adverting to the causes which led to the overthi
of the Palmerston Cabinet, the boo. pntletnan said
We all remember how the omnipotent statesman
roared like a lion against the Chief Commissioner of
Emperor of China suddenly lost his voice, and became
a sucking-dove before the Chief Commissioner of
Emperor of the French. That a statesman who, one
prev'ously, had branded the Conservative party as pe
who were willing to make the humiliation and degrade'
of the country a steppingstone to power, and who calk
upon the country to rally round him as one man, should
have been condemned by the accusing voice of his
overwhelming majority—because, though backed by
majority, he failed to vindicate the national honour IL
dignity, ought to leach politicians a wholesome lesson,
The retribution was severe, hut I think it was eine I
bution ; and if there he one vote in the course of the
session of which I feel proud, it is that which I gave
company with my right hon. colleague and that si
band of ninety-nine which composed the minority rat
first reading of the Conspiracy to Murder Bill. Ue
greeted at the time by the not very complimentary tel
philo-assassins ; but 1 nei ertheless thought, and di!
sequent downfall of Lord Paltneraton verified the opin
that that small minority expressed the real feeling of
people of England. In passing on to the goings
doings of Lord Palinerston's successors, I trust the
last year I deprecated the conduct of the People Sif
land in placing a blind and implicit confidence in I
Palmerston as the only pilot who could weather the stone,
r
so you will find in me now nn independent suprrte
Lord Derby. The days of blind and implicit 'Begin
Ministries are past and gone. Looking, however, ti
conduct of Lord Derby and the present Governesee.t
their accession to power, though there may be cit
stances which I regret, I think they have done mutt
entitle them to the growing confidence and esteem of
country. I cannot, as my votes will show, give
to all they have done themselves or permitted others
for i
for them. I regret that they should have sgiven n
assent to the passing of the Property Qualificano 0
believing that the errors which that bill proposed t


~I

Tact would have been much better amended as part and
parcel of a wore comprehensive measure of parliamentary
reform. I regret especially the conduct of the House of
Lords in withdrawing tat esistance which they had fur
so many years unswervinh r gly maintained, in accordance, I
believe, with the real feelings of the country, to the admis-
siou or Jews into Parliament. But, when I look at the
general policy of the Government, 1 must admit—
Übi plum nitent in carmine non ego panels
Uftentlar maculis, quas aut ineuria fudit
Aut humans martini cavit nature.
When I recognize, as I do, a sound but decided progress ;
when I see the statesmanlike ability of the leaders in both
houses, and the talent which distinguishes all the Ministers,
from the highest to the lowest, I think that it 'Mould have
betm altogether unjustifiable if I had withdrawn from them
my support, or placed in them only a timid and wavering
confidence. 1 will now for a moment pass on to one or
two measures in which I took an active part during the
past session. I will not enter into the merits of the Agri.
cultural Statistics Bill, which was the only bill introduced
which affected the agricultural interest, but I think I may
fairly congratulate you upon the spirit in which the House
of Commons rejected that measure, as affording a proof
that the agricultural interest is no longer considered by
them as a species of target for every experimental legis-
lator to wing his arrows against, but that its importance is
duly recognized, and that in legislating upon it, it will be
met as it is entitled to he met, in a spirit of impartiality

and fair play.
On the subject of his opposition to Mr. Locke
King's measure for the extension of the county fran-
chise to ten-pound householders, Mr. Du Cane
said :
I trust I shall not be understood, by oppositg that
measure, to be opposed in the main to any further change
in our representative system. On the contrary, I think
that resistance to progressive improvement forms no true
item in a Conservative creed ; and if we persist in op-
posing all improvement under the name of innovation,
the day will soon come—as it came in 1831—when we shall
he compelled to swallow the innovation divested of the im-
provement. I have every hope that in the next session
Parliament will be enabled to devote its time and attention
to the settlement of this great question. It will be a great
and Herculean task, for on one side are those whose
desires are boundless, and on the 'ther are those who
would fain act on the principle of " leaving well alone."
What the provisions of the new Reform Bill will be it is
impossible for anyone to speculate upon, but, at all events,
I will say this much, that while, on the one hand, I trust
the question will be dealt with in an impartial and com-
prehensive spirit, so, on the other. I trust it will be settled
tio as to be regarded in the country in the light of a final
settlement. There is, in my opinion, nothing more detri-
mental to the progress of sound legislation than reopening
and tampering bit by bit and piecemeal with so great and
vital a question as that of parliamentary reform.
The recent visit of the House of Commons to Cher-
bourg afforded another topic for observation :
All that I can say is that, as far as I was individually
concerned, we had one of the most delightful excursions
it ever fell to my lot to enjoy. I neither went there, as did
that able man Mr. Lindsay, who is one of the most impor-
tant and best informed of our shipowners, to make prac-
tieal observations, nor like Mr. Roebuck, as a cynic. I
think that both the English ships and sailors showed to
great advantage in the spectacle ; though much as I ad-
mired our noble forest of yachts, forming, as they would at
ally time, the nucleus of an admirable navy, and though I
cannot indulge in the rash and intemperate language of
Mr. Roebuck, I cannot help saying in the concluding
words of an able article in Blaektcood's Magazine, that " to
be forewarned is to be forearmed." You may depend upon
it that the visit of the House of Commons to Cherbourg
will be, as I heard remarked by more than one ultra-
Liberal member of Parliament, the occasion of considerable
expense ultimately to the people of England. When the
navy estimates again come before us, I think we shall
hear very little more of a cheese-paring economy, and I,
gentlemen, promise you for one that, though 1 will not
!end myself to a rash and wanton expenditure of the public
money, I will never, so far as my humble votes go, be the
means of rashly lowering the national defences.
Several other toasts of a complimentary nature
having been given, the proceedings were brought to a
close.

MR. FEN LEY, M.P., IN OXFORDSHIRE.
THE annual meeting of the Oxfordshire and Ban.
bury Agricultural Association was celebrated on
Tuesday, at Banbury. In the afternoon a dinner
was held in the Town-hall. Colonel North, M.P.,
presided, and vas supported by the Right Hon. J. W.
Henley, m.P., Lord Leigh, Mr. J. H. Langston, M.P.,
the lion. W. Fiennes, Colonel Cartwright, M.P., Mr.
J. J. Healey, the Mayor of Banbury, and a large
number of the gentry and farmers of the district.
The usual loyal toasts having been given,
Mr. Cmtrwttioffr proposed "The Health of the
Members et the County of Oxford, South Northamp-
tmshire, and South Warwickshire," and took occasion
to advert t the appointment of Mr. Henley as
President cf the Board of Trade, which he was sure
was regardid by the country, as by the right hon.
gentleman's constituents, with satisfaction.
Mr. HENIEY, M.P., who on rising to respond was
received will loud cheers, said he would adhere to the
rule of. the axiety which prohibited the introduction
of political topics, and then proceeded to touch on