The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-22 00:00:00

(Prom the Daily Nem.)

If the Manchester soiree of last Friday evening was
intended to lee a demonstration in favour of what are
called peace principles, it was a signal failure. The
senior member for Manchester himself hung fire. He
explicitly declared that "as the world is now consti-
tuted war may be inevitable." And even with regard
to the war in which we are at present engaged, Mr.
Milner Gibson confessed that he does not see his way
clearly. "Now, with regard to the war." be observed,"an
honourable friend of mine said to me, We knew—we
have heard your honourable colleague on the war, and
we know what are the views of the honourable member
for the West Riding ; but where are you I We should
like to know where you are on this question.' Well,
sir, there is such a thing as a man not knowing exactly
where he is. I know that is the case at sea sometimes,
with ships under the command of skilful navigators, in
thick and foggy weather. When they have not had an
observation for some time they have a very vague idea
as to their actual situation." Mr. Milner Gibson, accord-
ing to his own account of the matter, is exactly in the
same condition as Punch in the puppet-show of the
Deluge, when he halloos out, "Mighty hazy weather this,
Mister Noah." And the company addressed by Mr. M.
Gibson appear to have been quite conscious that,like him,
they were, in so far as the war was concerned, at sea in
a fog. They received his confession with a tolerant and
approving laugh, and they wound up the proceedings of
the evening by voting thanks to the members for the
City " for their honest and eloquent advocacy, on all
occasions, of the great principles to represent which
they were returned to the House of Commons." Not a
word of the war—a question which had not been mooted
at the time of the last election.
The Manchester soiree is a more effectual. rebuke to
Messrs. Bright and Cobden, for the course they have of
late been pursuing, than even the meeting at Leeds. At
Manchester, if anywhere, these gentlemen were likely
to be surrounded by a host of entirely sympathetic and
approving friends. Yet even in Manchester they have
been unable to get up a demonstration in favour of their
anti-war policy. The members for Manchester have not
met their constituents to render an account of their
stewardship and ask the electors to declare whether
they were satisfied or not with the manner in which
its duties had been discharged They met a number
of personal friends at a soiree held in their honour,
where any language but that of laudation would
have been impertinent and out of place. As an
inducement to their friends ti ra'ly round them,
it was urged that the strong feeling of disapprobation so
prevalent in Manchester, with referencce to the language
held by Mr. Bright about the war, was an insidious at-
tempt of the Tories to divide the Liberal interest. A
fear of breaking up the Liberal party, and a kindly feel-
ing toward the members and Mr. Cobden (associated
with them in the honours o(' the evening), were the mo-
tives that brought the assemblage of Friday evening
together ; and, to allow these motives full play, it was
found to be necessary to leave the war "au open ques-
tion." This, in a demonstration where Messrs. Bright
and Cobden were concerned, was leaving Hamlet out of
his own play. It was as if a soiree had been got up in
Dublin in honour of the late Daniel O'Connell, with a
tacit understanding that not a word was to be said about
" Repeal."
• The soirea of Friday evening contrasts remarkably