The Express.
London, England, 1868-09-04 00:00:00

TEE SBEFFIELD CUTLER'S' FLINT

The annual feast of the Cutlers' Company wan
held yesterday evening in their new hall, under the presidency
of Mr. Mama Flom. master cutler. A distinguished
company, consietkg of the Elite of Sheffield and its neigh-
boil-hoed, were present. Atnengst them were noticed Earl
Yitswilbam, LiM Whanielille, Lord Duncan, Mr.
fieverdy Jobnron, the American linnet-F._ Lord Milton,
M.P., Mr Roebuck, M.P., Lord Betleard Howard. M.P.,
General be Frey,-Mr. R. J. Reed
_0.81., Alderman Stone,
liheriff of London, the Ma ors of Doncaeter, Nottingham,
Manchester, Halifax end Sheffield, the Mestere of the
Cutlers' Company (Loftiest), the Master of the Grocers'
Company (Louden), &c.
The usual loyal sod constitutional toasts were given by
the Master Cutter' and most enthusiastically responded to.
In reply to the toast of the " Array, Navy, and Volun-
teers,"
Moja. Ai-I.:eastern responded on behalf of the army.
Mr. B. J. Barn, C. 8., wit. acknowledged the toast on
behalf of the navy, said that he was hardly a proper
lepreeentative of the navy on this occasion, as be did not
altogether belong to the militant branch. of the naval
polemics but although he *id not *are in it. dangere,
he had been for the although
five years constantly uuder
Ere, and be was not sorry to have this oppor-
tunity of making some explanations which he would
rather make in nhcifield than in any other town.
It was net true, as persistently represented, that he wan
an opponent of the tunet systemm. He had designed
several turret ships ; he had always been faeourede to
that system, and had always used his official influence, as
hie official superiors could testify, to obtain a full and fide
trial of it. At the present time Captain Coles was build-
ing a large turret slap ander his own solo supervision, ac-
trading to hie own ideas, assisted by all the skill add
appliances of Messrs. Laird, the eminent shipbuilders of
lurkenhead. (Cheers.) The only limitation on the part
of the Admiralty with reaped to this system was, that they
entertained a Trine doubt how far that system was appli-
cable to sea-going ships. But the chief anxiety of those who
were responsible for the navy of the country was to
obtain a thorough and efficient trial of that system as
quickly as possible. (Cheers.) When be entael the
service of the Admiralty the largest gun on board a sea-
going ship weighed 3.1 tons. There were now ships afloat
which curried guns of 7,8, 9, and 12 tons ; and the Her-
calm now building at Chatham would receive an
armament of guns weighing 18 tons. In addition
there were ships rapidly approaching completion
which were to carry' gins of 28 tong. (Cheers.)
He thought it ought to be widely known that the pro-
gress which has thus been made of late years in the
armonred ships of this country could not have been by
any means sb rapid if it had not been for the experi-
ment& sod the daring enterprise of the manufacturers of
Blgeffield. (Cheers.) He trusted that the time would
ci,me when the Admiralty would be better able to reward
that enterprise than they had hitherto been.
Lord W n.saricurrs responded for the volunteers.
Mr. J. J. Strum next gave the " Health of the Hon.
Ileverdy Johnson, as the representative of the United
State* to the court of this country.
The toast was drunk with great enthusiasm.

The Hon. REVERDT JonesOm, on rising to respond, was
received with much cheering. He said—Mr. Master
Cutler, my lords and gentlemen,—l return you my most
grateful thanks for the kind reception I have met with,
and you, Mr. Smith, for the complimentary terms in
which you have brought forward my name. You have
my warmest acknowledgment. I came to your country,
gentlemen, as a messenger of peace. (Cheers.) That
messenger I mean to be. I could not be otherwise if I
carried out the instructions of my government.
(Loud cheers.) I value your reception the more, be-
cause it assures me, in addition to the assa-
ranee!' which I have beard sines I have landed upon
your shores that you entertain a friendly feeling for the
government and the people of the United States—(cheere)
—and I am most happy to assure you, my lords and
gentlemen, that that feeling is warmly reciprocated.
(Continued cheering.) I speak only what I know, with
every opportunity of becoming acquainted with the senti-
ments of my country. I know that for no people on the
habitable globe is there a kinder feeling entertained by
those of the United States than for the subjects of her
Majesty. (Cheers.) We are in fact by origin and
by institutions one people. We have a common name,
kindred blood, similar privileges, and equal protection,
and these, in the language of one of your philosophic
statesmen, who taught the world what it was to be just
and right, " are ties stronger than links of iron."
During the domestic troubles which agitated our land, and
which brought to almost every household sorrow and
death, differences of opinion were entertained, and it was
not therefore to be wondered at that differences prevailed
hire in England as to the causes and the justice of the
struggle in which we were engaged; but the struggle
new, think God, is at au end. (Loud cheers.)
Our differences have disappeared, and I rejoice
to believe, and every day of the short days that I
have lived with you satisfies me that I am justified in
believing, that all such differences here have disappeared.
(Cheer.) We lave become convinced that we must be
one and indivisible. (Great cheering.) Nature, by her
mountain, and her river, and her ocean, has procliime I
to us that we must be one, and I beg you to be assured
that as we are one, that very unity will increase our pros-
perity and power. (Owen.) Our political institutions are
like yours ; they are fashioned from your', and in their foun-
dation lies a deep and never-dying attachment to human
liberty. In our land—l mean in our joint land—that
liberty will live for ever. (Loud andoontinued cheering.)
The troubles to which I have referred, great as they were,
sad and heart-rending as they have been, have been
attended by une ousupensation—we had au institution not
indigenous to us, but brought to us from a common
ancestor—human slavery. (Hear, hear.) Four millions
of people were in that condition. How to abolish it
without dangers even worse than those which followed
from its existence was a problem. Our domestic strife has
solved that problem. Slavery, thank (led, is now ex-
tinct—(loud cheers)—and no footprints are to be found
on the soil of the United States but those of free men.
(Cheers.) Dreadful as the havoc has been, prevailing as
the slaughter was, literally miring almost every battle-
field with blood, in future times it will be said that all
was well spent in getting rid of that blot—not of our
own creation, but of that blot which tarnished the fair
fame of the United States, and gave the lie
to the declaration of independomee, by which we
claimed our right to freedom and liberty. (Cheers.)
What is man without liberty? It is liberty alone " that
gives to life its lustre and perfume, and we are weeds
without it." Mr. Master Cutler and gentlemen, the
political canvass which is now on foot in the United
States involves the question who shall be at the head of
the executive of that great country; but I beg to assure
you, from my knowledge of both candidates, that which-
ever shall be the choice of the people you will fiud a
friend of England. (Cheers.) In the political contest
in which you also are engaged we have no other
interest, whatever the result may be, than that
your government may be strengthened, and not wask-
eined. (Cheers.) We have philosophic statesmen amoigst
us in the United States as you have here, and we look to
the continuance of your government as of itself a security
that political freedom is to be our lot for ever. With your
government and ours united in friendship, as I have no
doubt they_ will be through all time, we may defy the
world. (errs.) Liberty we have, but it is like your
own liberty—liberty restrained by law—liberty which
Inds its own safe protection only iu the restraint to which
it is made subject by law. (Cheers.) Mr. Master Cutler
and gentlemen, don't believe that I am a stranger
to your association, We have felt you in every form in
which iron can be felt. Your cutlery, your penknives,
and your steel are just as well known with us as they are
here, and they have benefited us as they have you. We
hare, I believe, in some measure provided ourselves with
what is called a table cutlery ; but in the way of razors,
if I may say so in the presence of ladies, you boat the
world. (Laughter and cheers.) We also acknowledge
your superiority to us in your steel manufactures ; nothing
can be finer, and nothing has contributed more to our
own minims than the success to which you have brought
that particular manufacture; but I trust that you will never,
with all the skill which from time to time you have mani-
fested, construct an instrument that will cut the cord that
binds us together as one people. (Cheers.) I have said
more, gentlemen, than I intended. I came here not
willingly merely, but eagerly. I refused, or rather I de-
clined, at first, because I supposed I might be obliged to
see her Majesty the Queen for the purpose of presenting
my credentials; but the moment I heard that she would
nut be hero as soon as was expected I changed my mind,
and the happiest hour I have had is that in which I ad-
vised you that I should be here, except that I have
been a great deal happier awe I come. (Laughter and
cheers.) Your government, my lords and, gentlemen, is
dear to us under any circumstances. The name of Lord
Wharneliffe should be dew to us. Your father, my lord
(turning to Lord Wlesnesliffe), was a guest of mine for
wine four or five days some four or Ave years ago. It
was during the seeks of • imovention for the nomina-
tion of a candidate for the presidency. He was doing me
the honour to stay with we, and he expressed a hope that
we should stand together. He was obliged to leave me,
and I received a telegraphic onaniunicotion from him from
Ihiledelphia, after which he wrote me • long letter saying
that he hail never beard the name of the gentleman nomi-
nated, and therefore did not know how we could stand
lititt Ile!. (Laughter). But we have stood, and
I, in that for over Muni! we will, a' long
es we can, your innate- warm, encore, willing
sod solicitous to be by your side it at any time
you should be in serious trouble. and protrivoloil
'heeling. amidst which the honciinible gentleman re.
sussed his asst.)

In responding to the taint of " The Hawse Undo,"
Lord virmarom..tres, after ridiculing the auggedi me a
Mr. lionman foe the reform of the Home of Leeds,
id that they bad heard a great deal about the nneertnor
ir.dinet of the House of Cumnione, but they aught safely
rely upon it that there was also an unerring instinct in
the Louse of Leeds, which would dwayr keep it in unison
with the public opinion of the country.
ht r. W. Irianim proposed the tomt of "The 11011111 of
0[1111BOINt," which was responded to by Lord MILTON.
In responding to the toad of his health,

Mr. Rorer( x, who met with a very warm reception,
feel most deeply the way in which you have re-
ceived the mention of my name. I regret the absence of
my colleague on this 000•41i031, and still more the ocomion
of it. lam culled upon to return thanks for the House of
Commons. This I consider • great honour, for I have
teen long a member of the Douse of Commons, and I may
say, as Grattan said of another House of Commons, that
I am now attending upon the hearse of the present House
of COMMON& That House of Commons has done for
England what Migiand will ever remember ; and although
it may have done it slowly, it has done it surely, and at
last the present Rause of Commone has admitted the
people of the country to its administration and govern-
ment. Therefore I say that we are bound to thank
the Demerol Cosemoaa for what it has done ; and I take
pride to myself for having been a party in it. (Cheers.)
So much for the Howe of Commons; and now for the
present occasion. I congratulate you, Mr. Master Cutler,
on account of the distinguished guest whom you have at
yoin right hand. He has coatis to us, as he tells us, under
t..e belief that he is • minister of peace. Ile has come to
us as the representative of the haughty off. piing
of a haughty parent; and I feel tenant that In
his hands there will be no degradation either to
one country or to the other; that there will be
no paltering with interests —no sham expression
of grandeur on the one aide or of humbleness
on the other, but that we shall meet on terms of perfect
equality and !fiendishly, but de*out of doing all • that nen
Le dune for the good of eon-elves and of humanity in
general, and I hope and I believe that Mr. Revardy John-
!OD, from his character and his antecedents, will so conduct
negotiations between this country and his own, that there
will be no lack of honcier on one side or on the other.
(Cheers.) Now, sir, Ibehevethatif I were prudent I should
finish, but I am not a m.-mt man, and meeting here
eel believe many friends I wish to explain to them the
feelings of my mind on the great changes that have taken
place in the government of the country stew we last
met in this hall. Now, first of all. we must under-
stand and acknowledge that the government of this coun-
try is no longer in the bands of the aristocracy as repre-
sented by Lord Whisrac.Wle, or of the middle classes as re-
presented by the Master Cutler. The government
of this country is now in the bands of the working
classes. We must not conceal this fact from our-
selves. The thing has been done, and we must
endeavour to meet it. Then comes the question which I
wish to talk to you about—whether we must expect good
or not from it, Now lam glad to have Mr. Reverdy
Jobwon on the right hand of the Master Cutler on this
occasion, because this change has already been made in
America, but, as I believe, made under more unfavourable
conditions than in England; the circumstances have been
more favourable in America than in England because of
the alrpost boundless power which they possess of giving
grants of land .to all comers, which we have not, but
more unfavourable, because there is poured into it
a tide of corruption, a feculent torrent of almost all the
vice and turbulence of Europe; we see the wild Irishmen,
the fiery Frenchman, the assassinating Italian, and the
dumbfounded Spaniard, all going out in one mass, and
wishing to fulfil their expectations in the mind of Ame-
rica. Mir' we are free from ; our experiment in England
is made with our own people alone we hare Englishman,
we have Scotchmen, and we have Irishmen, but we have
them alone to deed with, end my belief is so suong in
the good feeling of my countrymen that I feel
no harm will happen from having granted political
power to them ; after this no men certainly will
be able to say that we are coerced or misled by the aris-
tocracy, for the government of the country will be bathe
hands of the people ; and although I believe that this
government will be for the interests and advantage of all
classes, I wish to call atention to this fact. lam told that
in America the better educated classes have withdrawn
themselves from political life, that they have been °noted
and driven into the back ground by the vest population
which has grown up around them—the educated
classes in America have stepped aside from the
political torrent perfectly couteuted with their lot,
and feeling that they will be perfectly safe have let
political affairs settle in the hands of what we may mill the
buccaneering portion of society. I consider there is
great danger in this, and so thinking, I ask you to take
gait in every political movement. I don't ask you to
coerce anybody es landlords, but what Ido ask of you is
to act upon the principle laid down by Jeremy
Bentham. and to make a great and neat preg-
nant distinction between the power of will and
the power of mind over mind. The power of
of will means the power of the landlord to ooeree his
tenants. That I do not ask you to do, but I will ask yea to
exert the power of mind, over mind and further, I ask
you to tell your workmen what you believe to be fair
and right, nut coercing, but letting them do easily as
they like. That is in our power, if we not withdraw from
our present Isosition, under a new feeling of inferiority
created be the present law. It would be unwise to
take up that position, but tell the men under you what
you believe to be right, and let it work in their minds,
Cher. I believe we shall see what has never before been peen
—a people governed by itself. America does not do it.
There is a government of a people outside America, but
here we shall have a people inside ourselves, and of that
people I ask. as I ask of you, not to be coerced
by anybody,. nut to be uneled or frightened by
any trade unions, not to be anything but Englishmen,
considering simply the good of your country. (Cheers.)
I reek you workmen of this town to have confidence in
yourselves and in the dignity of your own nature, not to
be coerced or frightened by anybody, but do what yon
think right as your country demands. (Loud cheers.)
Lord Enwsne Howson, M.P., responded to the toast
of the Lord Mayor, on behalf of the Duke of Norfolk, and
Earl Frrewnesen returned thanks for his health as the
lord-lieutenant of the West Riding.
Several other toasts followed, and the company sepa-
rated at a late hour.