The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-02 00:00:00

VISCOUNT GODERIC.H AND HIS
CONSTITUENTS.

Viscount Goderich was on Wednesday entertained by
his Huddersfield constituents at a banquet in the Gym-
nasium-hall, and afterwards addressed his constituents in
a much larger gathering at the Philosephical-hall in the
evening.
At the evening meeting Lord GODERICTE spoke for up-
wards of three hours to about 2,000 people, and in the
course of his address said—We were arrived at a period
in the history of this country the events of which must
have the greatest weight on the future course of Eng-
land, and he felt that no ordinary responsibility might
attach to words falling from a member of the Legisla-
ture, however humble his position. It behoved every
man, however, to speak boldly his opinions. (Applause.)
He was thankful that the great question of the corn laws
was finally settled at the first meeting of the present
Parliament, for he trembled to think what might have
been the fate of England had we entered on the present
struggle with Russia with the corn laws still existing.
Reviewing his Parliamentary career since returned
for Huddersfield, and justifying his votes, the noble
lord congratulated the meeting on the progress which
the church-rate question had made, but regretted that
the ballot was not in a more advanced position, and that
Parliamentary reform had been again postponed. He
believed it might have been well if our statesmen, with
a wise foresight, had given a reform before the present
war commenced ; for, though it was true there was now
a valid excuse for pausing and hesitating at internal
changes in the midst of external disturbance, yet if our
affairs were carried on much longer in the manner in
which they had been recently administered—if the people
of this country did not find that the House of Commons
was determined to have only in office men who were wil-
ling and who were able to carry on the business of the
country—(cheer,) and whose hearts were in the work,
there might come a demand for Parliamentary reform
that might be resisted, but which would be dangerous.
(Hear.) He for one should not shrink from advocating
the necessity of that reform under any circumstances,
but he did feel that the time might not be far distant
when that which was not conceded to the demands of
reason might be yielded to a popular clamour which
might be just, indeed, and might be needed as the only
means of obtaining for this country government by men
who were determined to bring our affairs to a successful
issue, but which might have been better accomplished by
timely wisdom. He looked upon war as a great misfor-
tune, and regarded it in this age, and in a country like
this, as a far greater evil than ever it was before ; and,
however difficult it might be in the quarrels of nations,
as in the quarrels of individuals, fairly to distribute the
blame, he did believe that there was always somewhere
involved a great crime. He was bound to say that he
did not believe this war to be a contest simply about cer-
tain holy places at Jerusalem, for that quarrel in itself was
settled before the real struggle began. Glancing at the
origin of the war, and at the concessions made by the allies
to Rnsssia in order to avoid war, the noble lord said it was
only alter the failure of all these attempts that France and
England took up arms. In order to find out why we went
into tkis war—for he did not think we engaged in it
upon so chivalrous a principle as merely defending the
weak against the strong—(hear)—we must consider the
nature of the aggression of Russia, and the character of
the power which made that aggression. For, however
noble it might be, he did not think it would be safe to lay
down the principle that we were always to intervene in
an urjust war. We must look to other considerations—
to questions of policy ; and it was to these questions he
now addressed himself. In doing this he must go a long
way back, and remind them of what had been the policy
of Russia since the year 1700. It was since that time
she had acquired Finland, Poland, Bessarabia, Georgia,
the Crimea, all her territory to the south of the Cau-
casus, and all her ports of the Black Sea. When
the great cloud of the French revolution burst over
terrified Europe, and in the midst of those difficul-
ties which overthrew Governments and shook mo•
narchs from their thrones, in the midst of all those
horrors that startled mankind, who was it that sa+.
calm in her isolation and profited by it ail ? The
Empress Catherine of Russia. At the congress of the
Conservative statesmen of Europe— not Revolutieeists
or Radicals, not even Whigs, but men like Castle; eagh
and Mettereich were struggling to obtain from the Eni-
perorAlexander the recognition of the freedom of Pelend.
Those statesmen had left on record their opinions on chat
:subject, Could it be supposed their opinions were for tided
en the love of liberty or a lova of Poland ? Surely not ;
but, with the eye of statesmen, they saw where was the
Power that in the future would threaten the world, and
therefore it was that they persisted, almost to the pone.
of breaking up the conferences, and fought and strug-
gled most ably in order to obtain a barrier bet eeen there
and Russia. But in 1815 the man whom they most
dreaded, Napoleon, returned from Ella ; their Bol,rbon
friends were swept by the tide of French enthu •lastn
from their ill-sotteu throne ; and then, in Of the
French Emperor, they consented, in order to obtain the
support of Alexander, then indispensable, to give LI) the
question of the re-establishment of Poland. Ali they
asked, and it was conceded, was, that there shout I be
a sort of nucleus in the shape of the miserable republic
of Cr..cow, and that the Emperor of Russia should not
take Poland as an integral part of Russia, but as a sepa-
rate kingdom with a distinct and guaranteed constitu-
tion. He believed it was provided even that a rebstliou
should not be helot to confiscate the constitution, but
when the Emperor Nicholas put down the rebellion of
1332-3 he abolished the constitution of Poland, 'and thus
swept away the feeble barrier of 1815. Meantime
Russia was always advancing in the south, and obteenine
concessions from Turkey. Fur what was Sebastopol made
so strong, and for what purpose were those immense
granite fortifications erected on the worthless ni of
Aland, in the Baltic Sea ? Lord John Russell had told
us, too, that in the petty Courts of Germany Russia ruled
supreme ; so that, if Russian power stopped at the Vis-
tula, her influence only stopped at the Rhine. Russia
had spread her other arm over the south and east, and
was doing all in her power, not to raise the condition
.or increase the intelligence of the Greek Christians, but
to exercise a religious and fanatical protection over
them. It might be asked, could that be of any harm to
us ? To answer that question, they must look at the na-
ture of the Russian system. It was not that Russia was
a despotism—we had a despotism in Austria, and one
even across the Channel—but the Russian system was
something more than a despotism—it was a despotism
the principle of which was retrogression. The policy and
influence of Russia had always been exerted to stop the
onward progress of the world. (Cheers.) It was not
merely political, but intellectual progress to which he
alluded. Was there in any part of Russia any outlet for
free thought or free writing ? Should we, the western
people of Europe, at the head of civilisation, in the front
of the great battle of thought which had burst upon us
since we laid aside the swaddling clothes of the middle
ages, return to a system which would throw us back
again to even worse than this, and would not even leave
us the blissful right to labour and to think for our
own homes ? (Loud cheers.) Was the industrial and com-
mercial policy of Russia one to which we should Ike to
submit ? The question was, then, whether Russia was
not attempting to put the crowning stone to her policy
in 1853. If Russia had accomplished her object, and
got to Constantinople, either actually or virtually, he
)believed it would not have taken two years for her to be
'either at Konigsburg or at Berlin. Therefore it seemed
I o him (Viscount Goderich), if ever war was just—which
w las intended to resist dangerous aggression and encroach-
= rent—if it was a saving of human life to resist while re-
p', stance was possible, instead of struggling vainly when
yo u were in chains—that tha war in which we entered
auk% year was a just and necessary war. (Prolonged and
mutt .usiastic cheering.) He believed that if we had made
}the crossing of the truth a casus belli in the onset, then
• Russia would not have crossed it, and he feared that the
war had been occasioned not by a love of peace, but by
timidity. The admission of the Austrian troops into the
Principalities without a declaration of war he believed to
have also been a fatal mistake. The noble lord then dis-
cussed at some length the Four Points lately forming the
basis of conference at Vienna, and concluded by saying—
it is needless that I should enter into the horrifying de-
tails of the mismanagement of the war. Most of us have
had letters from the Crimea which have corroborated
many of the statements in the public press ; and the evi-
dence before Mr. Roebuck's conamittec seems to me to
have fully borne out the general character of those state-
ments. We have found that Ministers were not fit for
• their places ; that clerks did not do their duty ; that
some surgeons—and those the chief ones—neglected their
-patients ; that some generals in important povitione were
wanting in the qualities needed for their commands ;
-
that some admirals were not of a character suited to the
:important trust in which they were placed, till at last we
are reduced to find it difficult, nay. impossible, to lay a
finger upon one or two men out of the whole lot of them
upon whom the blame really rests. Gentlemen, this is
a despairing picture, but I do not think it is overdrawn.
(" No, no.") There is one comfort in the midst of
all these scenes to which I may be permitted fur one
moment to allude, and it is impossible to speak even
casually of the hospital at Scutari without re-
membering the name of her who has changed the face of
that establishment, until order has arisen out of chaos,
comfort has succeeded to misery, and the wants of our
soldiers have been supplied. (Cheers.) The name of
Miss Nightingale has been assailed in some quarters by
calumnies which I need not mention, but which have
been met by the people of England with the reprobation
and contempt they deserved ; and that name will go
down in history—when the name of the Aberdeen Mini-
stry is forgotten, when, perhaps, the Lame of Lord Rag-
lan is not recollected—as the name of one person who
Sias stood out pre-eminent among them all as the right
woman in the right place. (Cheers.) When these things
came to Our k
belief that wenowiedge we were startled from the proud
managed everything in this country better
than anybody did anywhereelse ; and Parliament met
in the bennin
indignantgi mood.g fI
towas year in a very angry and
of those who voted
in that large majority which turned
ment of Lord Aberdeen. jd
(Cheers.)
out the Gover,.-
I v d in
that majority because that .Government did not come
down and say unhesitatingly_, .rye it i
t: n
miseries have happened, but ;
we
thesear:
iltihreeeaoatut
e causes of e these
:them. Those are the men to blame
sore will punish." No, they told us nothing of th'elnd
cOne of them told us it was owing, I believe, to
.dente—l am almost afraid to use the words. Another
of them said it was owing to this and to teat ; t ,
things that could not have accounted for that disastrous
; and therefore we were brought to this c mcla.
• '—either that they line's' the culprits and wished
mob
sereeti them, or that they did not know the culprits,
and, tleerefore, were but the culprits themselvee. B
fore
cause, let this be recollected, it sounds very generous
Ministers 1:*0 say, " Oh, we know very well ti.at this
general, that commissary, and this subordinate are to
blame, but we will take the responsibility upon ourselvt s
and bear all the brunt of it. But Ministers of a great
country, at a moment like this, have no right to say
that. If they know who are to blame they
ought to
remove them. A change of llinistcy
pow is a great evil,