The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-16 00:00:00

E-ELECTION OF MR. SIDNEY ILERBE.RT.

SALISBURY, Thursday.—The Right Hon. Sidney Her-
bert's seat in Parliament for the southern division of the
county of Wilts having been vacated, according to con-
stitutional rule, by his acceptance of the Secretaryship
of State for the Colonies in Lord Palraerston's Govern-
ment, the right hon. gentleman presented himself before
his constituents to-day in this city, and was re-elected
by them without opposition.
The writ having been duly read, and the act against
bribery, intimidation, &c., hurried through amid less
than the average amount of impatience on the part of
"the free and independent electors,"
Mr. A. PowELL nominated the Right Hon. Sidney
Herbert as a fit and proper person to represent the
southern division of the county of Wilts in the Commons
House of Parliament.
Mr. J. H. JACOB seconded the nomination of Mr.
Herbert.

The HIGH BAILIFF then inquired if any elector had
any other candidate to propose, and, no response being
made to his summons, he declared the Right Hon. Sidney
Herbert to be duly elected a knight of the shire to serve
in Parliament for the southern division of the county of
'Wilts. (Cheers.)
Mr. S. HUBERT ;hen rose to address the electors,
and was received with loud applause. He said—Mr.
High Sheriff and gentlemen, my friend Mr. Jacob has
reminded me that this is the fifth time that he has re-
commended me for your suffrages to represent you in
Parliament. lam not sure that he ;has arithmetically
counted the number quite accurately, because I am sen-
Bibles of the fact that I have been a very troublesome
raember to this constituency, and I owe them my apo-
logies on that account, for this is the third time that I
have stood before them as a candidate for the honour of
representing them in the existing Parliament. Gentle-
men, you are so well aware of the circumstances which
have given rise to the necessity for Illy now appearing
before yon that I need not delay you long in making
any comments upon them. I believe that when, two
years ago, I entered the Government of Lord Aberdeen
I had your approbation in so doing. P 3 felt, by you
then, as it was felt by me tbs. e • üblic I
ateeee. i emergency no esee • tee,: le CA'_
with honour serve the Crown and the public is justified
Ls refusing his assistance for that purpose. (Hear, hoar.)
I think, therefore, that at this moment you will agree
with me that all who could in any way further the
public service were bound to contribute what•aid they
conld to this object. (Hear, hear.) There is no deny-
ing that the circumstances of the coentryat this moment
are critical; there is no denying that the war in which
we are engaged with a mostpowerful enemyis one which
require at our hands the putting forth of every effertand
the exercise of every energy of which this country is
capable. (Cheers.) We have had that war to wage by
the instrumentality of an army which is one of the finest
and noblest that ever left the shores of England—which
never met the enemy except to conquer, but which, I
regret to say, has met with an enemy more fell, and more
dangerous to it, than the actual foe—that is, disease—
by which it has been crippled to a fearful extent, and has
had to undergo privations and hardships which have
been borne with a heroism almost unexampled, but which
may be and must be attributed to causes that require
searching investigation—(applause)—in order that the
proper remedy may be applied, and that the blame, if
blame there be, should fall upon the right shoulders.
(Hear, hear.) This inquiry it behoves the Government
to lose no time in instituting. It has been the fashion,
perhaps too indiscriminately, t.) heap blame upon the
heads of those who are themselves engaged in carrying
on the operations in the Crimea ; and I say t 3 those
who may think that this is deserved, that there are
others besides those who have bean engaged in those
operations—that there are others besides these whose
business it is to minister to the wants of our army
who are to blame for these transactions. It is better
upon these subjects always to speak plainly the whole
truth, however unpalateable it may be—hear, hear)—
and therefore I say that many of those who have
been the most forward to decry what has been
done, and to censure those who have been charged
with its execution, have been apt to forget how
much may be their own share of that blame
which ought to be ascribed to those through whose
errors of these evils have unfortunately happened. Re-
collect that in time of peace this country has always been
most jealous of the existence of a standing array. We
have had in this country, in proportion to our wealth,
our power, our population, and the extent of our em-
pire, perhaps, the smallest army of any European State ;
and, small as it was, it was always looked upon with
jealous eyes, and any augmentation of its strength
watched with the utmost vigilance, and generally, if pos-
sible, prevented. We have had the army so used and so
distributed that it was not likely, at the commencement
of a war, that it should be perfect for all the purposes of
warfare. I have explained this elsewhere, but I will now
repeat what I have previously said, because I think the
truth ought to be understood ; and because, likewise,
the words I used before on this subject have been misre-
presented. I have stated that the English army ought
to be as good as any army in the world. (A. Voice—
"So it is.") I will explain to that gentleman, if he will
allow me, why ours is as good as any other army in the
world, and why, in soma respects, it is not so. I may
say, to arse a strong expression, that in time of peace we
have had no such thing as an English army. We have
had English regiments. Those regiments were scattered
over different parts of the globe, and stationed in diffe-
rent parts of the United Kingdom. Nay, more, in Ire-
land
those regiments have been positively broken up into
companies, and even into detachments of companies.
You use the army in Ireland for the purpose of hunting
out stills of illicit whisky, and of collecting the taxes—
you use it in Ireland not as an army, in fact, but as a
police force. When I say that our soldiers are as capable
as any organised army in the world, I mean that they do
that in which they have been practised better than any
other army in existence. What I mean is, that the re-
gimental system—(interruption, and a Voice, " It is all
the fault of the Ministers.") Well, if the gentleman will
allow me to say what I have to offer, I will be happy to
hear him in reply. I say that the English army is corn-
posed of regiments—that those regiments are thoroughly
masters of their duty—that the regimental system of
the English army is as near to perfection (if I may use
that word in reference to any human institution) as any
army possibly can be ; and throughout the last campaign
you will have seen that the regimental officers have in-
variably done their duty well, and that there has been
no instance of error er failure on their part ; bat what
they want, and what they do not practise in time of
peace, is that organisation adapted for large masses of
men collected together. This you never have in Eng-
land. Now, I wish yon to understand me here. I say
that in every other country in the world an army is a
collection of regiments, and other countries know how
to move, to feed, sad to organise large masses of men.
In England, on the other hand, this is never the case
until the time of actual warfare arrives, and then you
expect men both to learn their duty and to execute it at
one and the same time. I have said that we must use
every effort to repair the errors which have been com-
mitted, to apply the needful remedy, to guard against
the repetition of past mistakes, and so to strengthen and
maintain our army as that ultimately we may feel a
moral certainty of eII•JCOSS. The object of all war, in my
opinion, is peace, because you seek by war to get rid of
those difficulties which interpose to make the pre-exist-
ing state of peace insecure or even impossible. And
recollect therefore that the object of war being peace,
those who are the most anxious for peace should contri-
bute the most readily every effort they can to forward
the vigorous and active prosecution of the present
struggle. I say that I look to its termination in peace
—when, it is impossible for man to tell. You are aware
that the Government have sleputed ono of the most
eminent statesmen of the present day to proceed on a
mission to negotiate—that is, if negotiations be honestly
and fairly conducted, then he is to negotiate for a peace
that may be honourable to England and durable for the
whole world. There is no doubt that it there be any
country in Christendom which has an interest in peace
it is England. Her vastly extended commercial rela-
tions with all parts of the world—and among other rea-
sons I may also add the strong religious feeling of her
people—make England pre-eminent among the nations
of Europe as a friend of peace. We hare, however,
entered upon a war, reluctantly it may he, but
from a sense that the peace of Europe was threatened
by a State which, if not resisted now, might be too
powerful for our resistance hereafter. We embarked in
the contest from no selfish or exclusive motive, because
every European object was an English object likewise.
Our cause is not the cause of England alone, but the
cause of Europe, and, I may almost say, that of the
world. Therefore, in concluding this conflict, we must
conclude it upon terms which will afford solid ground
for the expectation that peace shall net again he lightly
disturbed. I think that the Government of Lord Pal-
m. "dna has done wisely in sending a statesman of the
Ares-dor; the antecedents, the reputation, and known
"nout of Lord John Russell to ascertain whether or
upon thou,
6 tit" ha% arrived when we can have peace made
sary and hulls
conditions which we consider to be feces-
honourable renumble to secure a durable, as well as
naciee44„o2 Gentlemen into questions of • entlemen, I will not enter
eoseeeti
moment overshadowed c policy. They are for the
impotzthe minds of all men by the
great and stirring
the less touch upon thers,ts of events abroad. I need
ever since I first en-
andd public life I have repreeckatZ
are I::;.uet one constituency,
you therefore know what
prineinpleaveteasures that I
which I ad-
have advocated and what the
hear.) I have always felt inte-
resthere. (Hear,
deeelopement of the social am m"..tri
in the
I have ever advocated aef.e:
nal com-
fort of the people.
liberty. I hold ehe "NOY
the progress of religious
I" opinions
still. I have had an experience, might almost say,
beyond my years,
because you sent rae Ito Parliament a
very young man,
than most men who enter
younger
that assembly but every year that has passed over my
head has served only to convince me of the truth and
soundness of the principles I have supported, and to
strengthen me in my determination to persevere in
their advocacy to the last. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I
Lord have again accepted office, feeling that
was
Palmer-
ston was entitled to ask from me, and that
bound to give him, whatever humble services it is in
my power to render. I have therefore entered his
Administration as Secretary of State for the Colonies';
and I mast say, undisguisedly and unaffectedly,
that I feel the full weight of the responsibility attaching
to the man who undertakes an office so important, and
who is charged, not with the government of the colonies
I am glad to say, because England has now grown wise
enough to know that she cannot, at a distance of thou-
rands of miles, pretend to govern countries fit to govern
themselves, but with the task of aiding, in the first place,
to regn'ate the intercourse between the mother country
sad her colonial children; and, above all, of assisting in
promoting the development of the material, moral, and
religious progress of those great dependencies, which
will
perkaps be the foundations in after times of mighty
empires, antrish* hLc will spread oyer the globe the tp,di- ,