The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-24 00:00:00

not be tried. Is there any statesman more liberal in voting,

speaking, and writing than Lord Stanley, who has not only
voted and spoken for the abolition of Church-rates, but has
written an able pamphlet in favour of it, and supports Re-
form ? Why am I, then, to be deterred from voting for
Lord Stanley because he sits on the opposite benches ? Why
am Ito be bound simply by a party restriction. I hesitate
not to declare that the Liberal party has neither a flag nor
a leader, and we are in the slough of despond. Who would
have ever thought that we should have arrived at a time
when repose and thanksgiving are enjoined upon us by
Liberal Ministers as the euthanasia of the great Liberal
party ? However inclined to be thankful, we are not dis-
posed to rest. Ministers exist by the support of friends,
parties exist by the vivacity of their principles. The other
day Lord Palmerston said that his Ministty was composed
of the ablest men in the world. I don't dispute that, but
there are many people who hold high office, who are only
selected because of high connections, and who, if they de-
pended on their own abilities, would be reduced to blowing
the bellows of their parish organ. If they are able they
are rather indolent, for they don't produce much. They
remind me of a parrot who was fold thirty years ago
as being the cleverest parrot in Europe, for he was able,
to say "The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the
Bill," which was a very popular cry at that time. A
most respectable old lady gave £5OO for the bird, but for a
whole year after it was bought it never uttered a cry. It
ate its food, it drank, and was in capital condition, but not
a word would it speak. The old lady remonstrated with
the man she bought it of, and he said to her, when
told that it would not speak, " Oh, no; but it's a devil
to think." I think that is very much the case with our
domestic policy. Before the Government was in office
we shook our fingers at them ; we gave them a weary
time ; we derided them for not being reformers and ex-
communicated them for not retrenching. Well, we got in,
and we're devils to think. (Laughter.) The head of the pre-
sent Ministry is I grant a fine specimen of a fine old English
gentleman. I separate him as what he is privately from
what he is politically. I know of no measure from 1809
down to the present day which he has produced or put his
impress on. He is an acute, able man, and having been all
his life in office very naturally does not want to get out of
it, but he occupies very much the position of the Duke of
Wellington in his later years, who, we must candidly admit,
adhered to old systems, and, grateful for victories won by
the old Brown Bess, would not hear of the Enfield rifle. I
am proud to have stood in Parliament as your representative,
and I have been proud of my position solely as you sent me
to Parliament as a free, unfettered, independent man—not
obliged to register a compulsory vote, nor give way to offi-
cial influence, or to be tickled by Ministerial blandishments.
If it is your wish that Lord Palmerston should be sup-
ported, I shall not gainsay it; but I cannot vote that black
is white when I know it to be otherwise, and I cannot be
reduced to a mere delegate. The infant lips of the present
Parliament were for reform and retrenchment ; when grown
up it ridiculed reform and despised retrenchment; but
when the throes that are approaching shall have arrived
you will have the old thing stammered out—reform and
retrenchment. Well, are you going to be taken in ? You
have no chance now; the principal people interested are
the lawyers, who for a consideration are baked in hot com-
mittee rooms. Railways are better represented than prin-
ciples. An independent man having a small fortune has
no chance against a railway contractor who promises to
bring a line into the town, and in fact the House of Com-
mons is now, as I have before declared it to be, a great,
rich, commercial man's club, and the narrow gauge
of private interests is made subservient to the great
broad gauge of public good. Lately we have had Mr
Gladstone making a tour through the country, but
he has not given any inkling of what the Govern-
ment are going to do. He said that he looked with shame on
our treatment of Ireland. I think he should have remem-
bered that his Government have done nothing to ameliorate
in any way the condition of that country. We all remember
the exertions of my excellent friend Sir J. Trelawny in fa-
vour of the abolition of church rates, He has thrown up the
question in disgust—and why ? Because the Ministry do
not vote for him, and no private member can be expected to
settle such a question as this, which none but a Government
can settle, and which could not be disposed of except by the
proposal of measures palatable to both parties engaged in
the struggle. Then, too, the Government were pledged to the
extension of the franchise, and this great question has been
left to Mr Baines, the member for Leeds. I am for opening
the portals of the Constitution gradually, so that I may ad-
mit the educated mechanic, who is as fit to exercise the
franchise as myself, or any man in this room. In times of
agitation the Government have said, " We will not yield to
fear." A dead calm comes, and then they tell us nobody
cares about it. Now, if ever there was a time for the respect-
able settlement of that question it is now, and that it is due
is surely evident when we have seen the millions of Lanca-
shire behaving in a way that would have done honour to
the philosophers of old. I say lam not one of those who
have ever bleated for universal suffrage, which I regard with
dread. I look to France and see there the effects of the des-
potism of one man, and I look to America and see the des-
potism of a mob ; and I am glad to find there is a middle
course, and I am persuaded that England would be prouder,
stronger, and safer if a great portion of the mechanic class
were admitted to the franchise. Referring finally to myself,
I have to say that I am proud to represent this constituency
so long as it is your will that I should do so on the princi-
ples which I have endeavoured to enunciate; but if there be
any disappointment in regard to the action I have taken
and the views I have expressed, I am content to abide by
your decision and to retire into that private life which I do
not need the means for enjoying.
Mr OSBORNE, in reply to Mr Gaskin, said—l must apo-
logise for having been so taken up with foreign affairs that
I omitted to notice the bill brought in by Mr Lawson,
which is the bill of Mr Pope, of Manchester. Mr Lawson
asked me to support it, and I said, " Certainly not ;" and
Mr Lawson's own speech convinced me that the measure
would be most tyrannical. To Mr Somes's bill for Sunday
closing I have a still stronger objection, as it would be
even more injurious. The most convincing speech against
it was made by a teetotaller, Mr Bright, who showed that
by its operation the poor man would be deprived of comforts
which the rich man would still be able to obtain. Ido not
believe in making people moral by act of Parliament—and
I can therefore hold out no hope that if again honoured:with
your confidence I would ever support these measures.

LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.—
On Saturday a special general meeting of this com-
pany was held at the Euston Station, to take into con-
sideration the property of raising further capital, under
the provisions of an act of the last session of Parlia •
ment. Mr Moon, chairman of the company, presided.
The chairman, in opening the proceedings, explained
that by the provisions of the Lancashire Union Railways
Act of last session the London and North-Western Com-
pany were empowered, should the proprietors think fit, to
subscribe to and become partners in that undertaking to
the extent of £lOO,OOO. The present meeting was called to
authorise the directors to make such subscription, and to
raise for that purpose the requisite amount of capital.
The hon. gentleman concluded by moving a resolution in
the spirit of the foregoing observations. The capital to be
raised by the creation of new ordinary shares pr stock in
the undertaking of the company, to be disposed of in such
manner and to such persons as may. in the opinion of the
directors, be most advantageous to the interests of the
company. Mr Westhead seconded the motion, which was
unanimously agreed to, and the proceedings terminated in
the usual manner.

DEATH OF A WATERLOO VETERAN.—Major
Richard Weyland, one of the surviving heroes of
Waterloo, died at his family seat, Woodrising Hall, Nor-
folk, on the 14th inst. Major Weyland was a British soldier
of the finest type, entered the army at an early age, and
continued in the 16th Light Dragoons until after the Penin-
sular war, and subsequently settled down as a country gen-
tleman on his estate at Woodeaton, Oxfordshire. In 1854,
upon the death of his elder bruther (the late Mr John
Weyland), the major succeeded to the family estate in
Norfolk, Woodrising Hall, and left to reside there, He
was member of Parliament for the county of Oxford from
1832 to 1837, having for his colleagues the late Mr Harcourt
and Lord Norreys (the present Earl of Abingdon), and
served the office of high sheriff in 1830. Major Weyland's
elder daughter is the present Countess of Wiliam.

A SHOCKING CASE OF STABBING,—A serious ease
of possibly fatal stabbing took place on Saturday
morning at the workshops of Messrs Cubitt, in the Gray's
inn-road. It appears that two youths—Henry Parsons,
aged 16 years, and Thomas Dudley, aged 14 years—were
employed in the turning department of those workshops,
and at about 11 o'clock Dudley amused himself by larking
about the shop and interrupting Parsons at his lathe. Par-
sons angrily told Dudley to desist, but the latter, instead of
doing so, ran against him and pushed him on one side ;
thereupon Parsons seized up a heavy tool, or chisel, the
blade of which was eight inches long, and hurled it at
Dudley with all his force, and it buried itself deep in his
right thigh. The poor boy fell, and the blood gushed out
in such a stream that it was apparent at once that his life
was in jeopardy, and the workmen carried him straight
to the Royal Free Hospital, Mr May, the house surgeon,
pronounced the wound to bo of so dangerous a character
that it would bo impossible to state whether the boy's life
could be saved. The lad Parsons was given into custody,
and was taken to the King's-cross-road station. Both boys
had borne a good character.