The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-05 00:00:00

DINNER TO THE MEMBERS FOR HALIFAX.

HALIFAX, FEB. 4.
' Last evening the Right Hon. Sir Charles Wood
aad Frank Crossley, Esq., the members for the borough of
Halifax, were entertained at a dinner given by their friends
and supporters in celebration of their return at the recent
shalom. Nearly six hundred tickets were taken toy the
actors and non-electors, who dined at sixteen different
betels and inns in the tows; the two members and their
leading friends dicing at the 010 Co de Inn, the head-
quarters of the liberal arty. After dinner the holders of
Bakes assembled in the Odd Fellows Hall, which was
must tastefully decorated for the occasion, and there the
speeches were delivered.
The CHAIRMAN first gave—" The Queen," which was
(bunk in a bumper, and duly honoured. He next give
'Prince Albert, and the rest of the royal family," which
was received with great enthu-iada ; and then followed
" the Army and Navy."
The CHAIRMAN again rose, and after pointing in terms
el eulogy to the long an I varied services rendered to the
borough by Sir Charles Wood, and to the independetr posi-
tion taken in the House of Commons by Mr. Frank Crossley,
who wokl for the first time returned as one of the members
for the borough, at the election in July last, he gave as the
toast of the evening "Our borough members."
Sir CHARLES WOOD was the first to return thanks, and
said—Time, lum afraid, has changed many of us. is are
all getting older, we may be failing, but this at least I may
congratulate you upon, that in the look and the prospects
of Halifax all these changes aro for the better. (Hear,
hear.) This town is growing in improvement, if some of
its inhabitants are growing older. No doubt the great
natural tVatures of thecountry, its Beacon Hill and its Skir-
emit Moor, remain the same. But if any one compare the
town now with w hat it was some 90 years ago, how mightily
surprising the difference, and how much there is upon whith
I may congratulate you all. "Honour to whom honour,"
and therefore, in use first ',lace, I would congratulate you
on the cirdbmstance of having become a corporate town
endowed with the privileges of self government. (Hear,
hear.) Believing as Ido that the stability of our institu-
' tions, that the stability of the institutions of almost every
country. depends upon the degree in which its citizens are
used to self-government, I hold it to be by no means an
unimportant tact in the history of this country, that
great and increasing towns like this have had municipal
charters conferred upon theta and have been enabled to
manage and govern their own concerns. It is said to be
the characteristic of the Anglo-Salon race that they are
almost the only people capable of governing themselves.
(Hear, hear.) I look also at improvements no less strik-
ing than those taking place in the neighbourhood and
country at large ; and if such a being as an °id tory of
2d years ago could rise up and look at England as it now is
end as it was before I had the honour of representing
the borough of Halifax, how surprised would he be ?
It is not • little remarkable that sve are now, I think, cele-
brating the final triumph of the third of three great
struggles in which the party with which I have been con-
nected hes borne a prominent part io the course of the last
quarter of • century. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) The first
was completed before I became connected with Halifax ;
the triumph of civil and religious liberty, by the repeal of
the Test and Corporation Acts, and the emancipation of
the whole:1. The second was consummated by the ex-
tension of political rights, when Halifax became enfran-
chised. The third was the triumph of commercial freedom,
sealed at the last general election, when you bore
no inconsiderable part in securing that triumph
by the return of Mr. Crossley and myself. (Applause.)
From that time forwards till unfortunate occurrences within
the last two or three years have taken place, I must say that
no antagonistic feeling scented to exist amongst the varied
denominations in the country. We never asked in the
House of Commons of what religion a man was. (Hear.)
We believed that they did their duty faithfully. Provided
a man was a good citizen and fulfilled his duty, we never
inquired into his religious faith. And that I think was a
sound and wholesome state of things. I am sorry to say,
and your werthy chairman has referred to it also, that theta
appeared to me to be some symptoms at the last election
which looked as if a revival of those feelings had taken place.
But I am sure it is the part of every good and wise man to
discourage the revival of such feelings as these. (Hear.)
I think, with my friend the chairman, we ought from time
to time to revise our parliamentary constituencies ; and I
think that the principles on which the Reform Bill of 1832
was framed were sound, and just, and correct principles.
It would be strange indeed if there were no faults and no
defects which the experience of twenty years did not bring
out. Those faults end those defects we are prepared to
amend. (Loud and reiterated applause.) But we propose
to proceed upon the principle we advocated in 1832, and
so to extend the franchise as to embrace the most intelli-
, gent of the classes below those now enfranchised—(what I
mean by below is in point of pecuniary qualification)—who
may be most fitted and best fitted to enjoy the franchise.
believe that, wherever the freemen have been suffered to

remain, their leaven has corrupted the mass, and there is
hardly a borough where freemen exist where corruption is
not rampant. And therefore, till the people of that class
become better educated aid more intelligent, I am against
extending the franchise too far and too fast. And surely,
gentlemen, we have warning enough in what has taken
pace in foreign countries against precipitate and ill-con.
sidered measures of this description ? There is hardly a
country in Europe which in the last four or five years
has not attempted a revolution. There is hardly a
country in Europe in which I may say the mob has not
for a time ;pined the ascendancy; and there is not a
country in Europe in which the re-action has not been
such that at the present moment despotism rules from one
extremity of Europe to another, and the only power ac-
knowledged is that of the sword. Take our nearest neigh-
bours. Such a despotism never prevailed in France, even
in the time of Napoleon the First. (Hear.) The press
gagged—liberty suppressed—no man allowed to speak his
opinion—the neighbouring country of iteleiium forced to
gag her prest—no press in Eurupe free but ours, which,
thank God, he cannot gag. (Applause.) And hence his
hatred of our press that it alone dares to speak the truth.
How has that despotism been constituted ? Not by the
intelligence of France ; not by the intelligent electors. Not
by the educated classes of France ; because he altered the
constitution before he put the question of his power to the
vote. Twice an appeal has been made in the form in which
he chose to put it, to the people of France. The votes in
France were taken by universal suffrage and voting by
ballot. Now, gentlemen, just consider what the effect of
this has been. I don't mean to compare ourselves in con-
stitutional knowledge with any nation in Europe; but still
the re,edt of universal suffrage and the ballot heedlessly
given, or rather given for a purpose, has been to establish a
despotism such as never existed in any country in Europe.
Therefore, gentlemen, let us extend the franchise, let us
extend political rights—that has been my opinion and my
idea ever since I had a vote in parliament; but let us take
care that we do it cautiously and steadily, not beyond what
the general feelings and wishes of the country demand. Let
us extend lower, and let us extend wider the middle classes
in this •country—those classes which in every part of the
world have been the depositories of liberal opinions, the
champions of freedom against the encroachments of the
great and the corruption of the lowest orders ; extend the
middle claws with the intelligence and education of thane
who have not hitherto sufficiently benefitted by
.those pri-
vileges. Thus, and thus alone, shall we in my opinion pre-
serve that freedom—that constitutional freedom, which
exists in this country beyond what I believe is to be found
in any country in the world, however pure its insti-
tutions may nominally be. Thus we shall pre-
serve that which has been, end will be, I believe,
the distinguishing blessings of this country. (Hear, hear.)
Now, gentlemen, there s a constant cry for revision of tax-
ation; and a revision of taxation no doubt is desirable sad
necessary. But people who don't attend to these things
are sometimes led away by words, and have net time wit
leisure to know what lir been done. The truth is this,
that our taxation has for the last five and twenty years beam
in a constant state of revision. Year after year changes sad
improvements have been made ; and you, perhaps, will be
astonished when I tell you that I don't think there are above
three or four trifling taxes which exist now in the seam sings
that they existed twenty years ago. (Hear.) SIMS All poem
upwards of 43 millions of taxes have been repealed nit re-
duced. Some few taxes, as you know, have bees limpued,
but the estimated produce of this, or the balms et repeal
and reduction, is nearly 40 millions of taxation smite
the peace. (Applause.) And, gentlemen, you will per-
ceive that it is impossible this can be done without constant
and steady attention to revising the system of taxation in
this country. (Hear, hear.) In five years I repealed or
reduced myself nearly five millions of taxes. (" Hear,
hear," and cheers.) 1 believe the sound and the safe sys-
tem is when the Chancellor of the Exchequer Mean avail-
able surplus to apply it to a reduction or repeal as the case
may be—in the revision of what appears to him at the time to
be the most objectionable tax. That was the course which
prudent Chancellors of the Exchequer have pursued, and
which I think ought to have been pursued, on a
recent occasion. (Hear, hear.) And certainly if the fall
of the late government is to be attributed to any one thing
more than another, it is to the most injudicious and ill-consi-
dered attempt made to impose unnecessarily an obnoxious tax
for one which nobody on earth considered to be a grievance.
There is another collateral advantage which I anticipate

from the extension of free trade and commercial inter-
course : that is, it will afford the best security for the peace
of the world. (Applause.) No one concurs more than I
do with the objects of the Peace Society, though I confess I
differ with them as to the means by which we should seek
to attain our common end and aim. There is no one more
convinced than myself of the evils of war, but I do think
that the best security for peace is to be prepared for war if
need be, hut which I hope will not take place. (Hear,
hear.) Offensive war I should deprecate as the greatest of
evils; defensive war I apprehend no man in this hall would
shrink from. (Hear.) We are not to be bullied, insulted,
or trampled upon by any nation in the word—(Hear, hear,
and cheers.) And if there is no system of aggression, no
attempt to foster a war spirit, there can be no cbjeetion to
putting ourselves in a proper state of defence. (Applause.)
I am, myself, u satisfied as any one can be of the courage
of Englishmen when once put upon their metal and tried,
but it would be the highest folly to excite undisciplined
men to meet the fire of regular disciplined troops ; there-
fore, it is as our chairman has said, bat a small sum in the
shape of insurance for the security of our homes and pro-
perty that we should have to pay for putting ourselves an a
proper state of defence. Now, lam not one of those who
have ever been an alarmist. (Hear, hear.) The first time
I made • long speech in parliament, was to answer the
speeches of thou who contended that oar army was
in such • state as to leave our shores defence-
less. I Lave believed in the possibility of the success-
ful invasion of this country, or such an invasion as we
could not meet. But this is not the danger which any
man thinks even possible. The danger which may be ap-
prehended is that which has been referred to, and from
which Injury might result, even if it took place on a slight