The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-15 00:00:00

The Chancellor of the Exchequer at

Manchester.

MANCHESTER, Friday Evening.

THE ADDRESS IN THE TOWN HALL.

At 11 o'clock this morning the Chancellor of the
Exchequer attended at the Town-hall to receive an
address from the Corporation of Manchester, The
hall was densely crowded,

The MAYOR (Mr J. M. Bennett), in stating the
object of the meeting, referred to the fact that it
was just eleven years this week since the Chancellor
of the Exchequer received an address from the citi-
zens of Manchester. At that time some of the more
cautious among them had considerable doubts as to
the course of financial and commercial policy which
the right hon. gentleman was then pursuing. Some,
perhaps, of the more shortsighted could not then
comprehend how taxation could be reduced, in re-
gard especially to certain articles used by the indus-
trious classes, and how, at the same time, the
revenue instead of being diminished could be in.
creased. (Hear, hear.) Happily those times have
long passed away, and they were now all agreed
that the statesman who stood before them was the
man of whom among all others this great mercantile
nation has reason to be proud. (Cheers.) He had
the honour, in the name of his fellow-citizens, to
offer the most cordial welcome to their illustrious
visitor. (Cheers.)

Mr. GLADSTONE, who was received with the
greatest cordiality, said—Mr. Mayor, ladies and
gentlemen,—you have been good enough, sir, in the
remarks with which you prefaced the reading of
this address, to remind this meeting and myself that
this is not the first occasion on which I hale had
the honour to stand in your Town-hall, and to re-
ceive an expression of your confidence, I am sure,
sir, you did not suppose that for me at least any
such reminder could be necessary, for the day upon
which a person charged with the administration of
the finances of this country, and placed in inti.
mate relation with its commerce, and the day on
which a person so placed receives an expression of
approval from the citizens of Manchester, through
their highly accredited and most authentic organ,
the municipal body of the town, is a day that can-
not be forgotten as long as the pulse of life shall
beat. (Hear.) And, sir, I feel myself particularly
happy in receiving the unexpected honour of a re-
petition of that confidence and favour. I did not
expect that it would have been the desire of tha
citizens of Manchester, expressed through their
chief magistrate and the municipal body, to bestow
upon me a favour, to have received which once was
quite enough to satisfy my desires, and to go far
beyond my deserts—(cheers)—but at the same time
you have chosen to make to me a tender which it
was impossible for me to hesitate one moment about
accepting; and at any rate you have given me this
public advantage—you have called attention to the
interval which has elapsed since, formerly holding
the same office in the service of the Clown, I stood
before you in this place, and received from you an
address similar to that which I have the honour to
receive to-day. And what years, Mr. Mayor, those
years have been ! what years of progress ! what
years of suffering ! what years of painful and partly
of pleasurable, but in each case of valuable and
precious experience ! What years of retrospect !
what years of hope, how much they have taught
us as to the character of our country and of our
countrymen 1 How much the course of these events
is calculated to direct cur minds to the future, and
to ask what part England is to play, what position
she is to mime, what is to be the condition of her
institutions, what the character of her population
when our children shall occupy the places that are
now held by us ? But chequered, sir, as those
years have been—and in no place more than in the
district of which this great city is the centre— they
have been years, upon the whole, in which the
elements of satisfaction, the causes for thankful-
ness to the Almighty, and the grounds of hope
for the future have preponderated in a degree I
might call immeasurable over every element of
a contrary character. (Cheers.) In the—compli-
ments I will hardly call them, for the word
is too light and trivial, but the expressions of
indulgence, of kindness, and of favour, which you
have been pleased to use towards me, ere expres-
sions that I shall not interpret as belonging to my•
self in an individual capacity. It is true, circum-
stances have placed me in a position of special re-
sponsibility with regard to that class of questions
in which your particular interests, and in which the
industrial interests of the nation are peculiarly con.
cerned. It is also true—and it mast never be for.
gotten—that in the period in which we live indus-
trial questions, commercial and fiscal questions, are
assuming a moral character and aspect, a social and
political importance in such a degree as has never
before belonged to them. (Cheers.) And for my-
self, sir, I will not affect to deny that ever since it
became my duty to apply the best powers of my
mind, such as they may be, to the study of these I
subjects, I have found bat one view of them to be
possible, and that the view which tends in every
direction and with no limit, except such as consi-
derations of prudence may impose, towards the libe•
ration of industry, capital, and skill. (Cheers.) I
may claim for myself the credit of having earnestly
and sincerely laboured in the cause—(cheers)—but
I should go greatly beyond the limits not only of
modesty bat of truth were I to forget for on: moment
that I have been a pupil far more than a teacher,
that I have been a follower far more than a leader.
In eminent statesmen among my own colleagues,
among members of Parliament, those who held the
distinguished position of independent legislators for
the country, among political economists, among the
practical men in English commeree and manufac-
ture, have been found those powerful, indefatigable
minds that have made the truths of economical
science at last clear as the sun in the heavens at
noonday, and caused them to be no longer subjects
of dispute or mere philosophical speculation, but
part of the practical patrimony of every English-
man as he is born into the world. (Cheers.) And,
Mr Mayor and gentlemen, let it not be said that
we are met here for the mere reciprocal exchange
of compliments—let me not attempt to express my
gratitude to you in language that might seem
to savour of adulation to yourself and your
position. I will not overstate, but I will under-
state, the case when I say that when the pen of the
historian shill hereafter delineate—and depend upon
it it will delineate with care the entire history of
the momentous change that has been brought about
in our lifetime in the commercial legislation of the
country, to no community, to no separate andsingle
portion of the British nation can that pen assign a
station so distinguished and so prominent, what-
ever may be the claims of others in regard to the
special and effective prosecution of this great cause,
BB it will most assuredly award to the community
of Manchester. (Cheers.) Mr. Mayor, the services
such as they may be, which has been in my power
to render, have been rendered not in a single and
individual capacity, but as a member of the admi.
nistrAion. (Cheers.) To my colleagues, not less
than to myself, to some of them in particular, but
to all of them together, is due the praise of which
you are pleased to make me the particular and per-
sonal recipient, and glad I am indeed to stand be-
fore an assembly such as that which I now have the
honour to address, for feel myself justified in their
name as well as in my own, of tendering to you an
expression of our warm, our respectful gratitude.
Now, Mr. Mayor, and gentlemen, the years that
have passed and the course of them to which you
have alluded would afford many topics for comment
and remark, but it is difficult to make a selection
from them, but as you have gone back, sir, to that
period, now almost exactly eleven years ago, where
first I had the honour of receiving
your favour, I cannot help recollectingthe expression of
that at that
time, in the first
; place, the mind of the country
was most uneniraons!y directed to a great question
of foreign policy, and
n the second piece to an im-
porta'nt question Which was then regrded with the
greatest interest by tht, citizens of Manchester, ree
lating to:et he province of commercial reform—l mean
the rcpcai of the paper duty, Let
roe say a very
few words on each of these two questions. It is
quite plain that of late years the for, ign policy
the country has assumed an immediate and of
parti-
cular importance ns a standing subject of debate in
the legislature, and of discueson by the pees

and by the people, such as was almost unknown to
our forefathers. In former times, from period to
period, great questions occurred where the national
interests or the national honour was supposed to be
specially connected in some particular debate with
some particular country, but at other times the ate
tention of the Legislature and the nation has been
confined to domestic affairs, That state of things
is now greatly changed. Such has been the extent
sion of our commercial relations in particular into
every quarter of the globe, that on the mere ground
of special and direct interest we are compelled to
pay an attention to what takes place elsewhere such
as formerly was not by any consideration of abso-
lute necessity demanded at our hands. But it has
not been the extension of direct interest that we
should take into view. We must also consider the
undoubted and indisputable fact that one of the cha-
racteristics of our time is the mutual feeling of cone
cern of every nation in the affairs and destinies and
prospects of every other nation, and in no country
can that sentiment of general interest and of con-
cern be so natural, so suitable, so efficient as in a
country like England, placel in universal relations
with every people of the earth, Under these cir-
cumstances it becomes a matter of the deepest im-
portance that wisdom, circumspection, courage, and
justice should direct the foreign policy of this coun-
, try. (Cheers.) Well, Mr Mayor and gentlemen, in
speaking of this principle I hold that the disinte-
rested position of England is above all that which
should be borne in mind—that we have a high dig-
L nity—that we have a high influence, with regard to
, all questions in the least affecting the policy of
Europe, to which no other country from its position
can in the same degree aspire, although in point of
fact it is no special virtue on our part, but is the
result of that position in which Providence has
placed us with regard to the other states of Europe,
so that we can have no desire with regard to them
except that peace and harmony should prevail
amongst them, and that they should adopt for
their standing guidance of conduct the principle of
respecting the rights of one 'another. (Cheers.) This
is a happy position for us to maintain. It places us,
as it were, by the side of every European nation in
the character of the friend of each and all. It makes
us feel that the time is gone by when it was the
fashion and the custom of the country to speak of
one great country abroad in particular as our na-
tural enemy. We have no natural enemy. (Cheers.)
Every country of Europe is our natural friend, and
if to any country of Europe in particular we are to
look as the country by a choice relation with which
we may best promote the general interest of the
civilised world, it is that very country which once,
in the blindness of uncharitableness and in natural
yet unhappy prejudice, we regarded as our natural
enemy. (Cheers.) I trust that you think that the
conduct of the Government in the regulation of its
foreign policy has been actuated by a sincere desire
to perform towards all countries of the world the
offices of friendship. (Hear, hear.) I trust, indeed
I am confident, that you think that that dis-
position has been indicated by the Government, and
not specially by the Government, for in this respect
they have been no more than the organs of the
feelings of the people. That disposition to respect
the rights of every country, to avoid undue influ-
ence in its concerns has been indicated in regard to
the lamentable war which still desolates the con-
tinent of America, (Hear.) England was a sad
sufferer by that war, I don't believe that history
records a case in which the internal dissensions of
a country have produced such wide-spread calamie
ties in other nations beyond its borders. But we
have felt that it was our duty to respect American
freedom ; to respect the discretion of the Americans
to deal with their own affairs, whatever might be
our particular opinions as to the wisdom of any
course they were pursuing, or as to the practicability
of any object they had in view. For my own part,
I confess that I always had great doubts as to the
practicability of reducing to subjection any large
portion of a country that manifests a determined
disposition to separate. (Loud cheers.) But what-
ever be our opinion, we have no right to place it in
a form which should make us the judge of what it is
fit for another country to do. (Continued cheers.)
Theirs is the responsibility ; ours has been in part
the suffering. But if we groan over the suffering
which has been experienced among our own popula-
tion, let us look at the frightful magnitude of the
calamities the Americans are undergoing. (Hear.)
It is for them, as they have the responsibility, to
judge of their own course. I entertain, in the first
place, this conviction, t hat, by any attempt to
enforce our own judgment instead of theirs, we
should have done nothing but embitter a contest
already too much exasperated ; in the second place
I feel that the sentiment with which we ought to
regard this most unhappy war is :—We have no
jealousy of American greatness, we have no reason
to fear them or any other nation—(hear, hear)--we
feel they are our brethren by blood and language;
we know their continent is calculated to continue
in relations of the most benefichil intercourse with
us, and we ought to pray Almighty God that it may
please Him in His mercy to bring this sanguinary
contest, if it be His will, at an early period to such
a termination as shall be best for the happiness,*
peace, permanent welfare, and prosperity of all the
inhabitants of what were once the United States.
(Cheers.) With regard to other questions of foreign
policy, I need not say much; I might express the
warm and enthusiastic feeling of this country with
regard to what is believed to be the cause of free-
dom, of justice in the Italian peninsula. (Cheers.)
Lately we have been informed of an event which I
deem of the greatest importance with regard to the
future happiness of the Italian people—l mean the
Franco-Italian treaty. I am not able to pronounce
any diplomatic or official judgment on the merits of
that convention, but I may venture to say I regarded
it with the eye of satisfaction. (Hear, hear.) It may
not, it is true, promise an immediate solution of the
very serious difficulties with which the destinies
of the Italian people are still beset, but we know
that the best and wisest meu of Italy believe that
by this treaty a great step has been gained toe
wards the consolidation of freedom in that coun-
try. As to the object in view, I cannot express to
you what I think of its importance. 1 do believe
that the fusion of the separate and feeble States
of Italy into a kingdom which shall be united and
powerful, and in which on all European questions
must almost of necessity be disinterested, is an event
of incalculable importance to the happiness of man-
kind. (Hear, hear.) I ventured a few minutes ago
to say that England was singularly favcured in her
insular position, which renders her impartial in re-
gard to questions of European politics ; but the Alps
very nearly do for Italy what the sea does for Eng-
land. It is hardly possible that Italy could be a
power under under any circumstances animated by
the pernicious and destructive madness of the prin-
ciple of territorial aggrandisement. In the best sense
of the word, on European questions the kingdom of
Italy even as it is, still more when more fully con-
solidated and brought to its natural limits, must be
for every European question a power conservative of
honour and justice—conservative of the peace and
welfare of the world. (Cheers.) We have no merit in
regard to the treaty ; but it is a subject on which, tak-
-1 ing a view of its provisions which it appears to war-
rant, we may exchange mutual congratulations; the
solution of the other problems will follow, under
Providence, in good time. Meanwhile something has
been accomplished, and it is well that the treaty has
a tendency to divest the great political question at
issue in Italy of its more distinctive ecclesiastical
character. It is well that lia:iaes and a large por-
tion of our own fellow-countrymen should under-
stand that, in our warm sympathy for Italian unity
and freedom, the people of England are not governed
by what may be called sectarian motives—the peo-
ple of England have their own religious connexions,
and are sufficiently decided in the maintenance and
expression of them; but they contemplate this Italian
question with the true and single view that what
they look at is entirely a question of political rights
end justice, anal that they recommend and support
precisely the same principles in regard to the con-
solidation and unity of Italy, as they
the religion of Italy were in every respect
as their own. (Cheers.) May I nwouthlde do if
now venture to
advert to another question, which, in my opinion,
is not of [mall interest, but which has been
little mentioned in this country, because I think of
the unity of feeling in reference to it—l mean the
erasion of the lonian Islands. I look wi!ti great

satisfaction on that measure—(hear, hear)—because
it shows the people of England are rising far above
the region of their prejudices, by which their judg-
ment would formerly have been obscured. Years
back we should have had all sorts of bugbears sent
into the world, and attempts would have been made
to persuade the people that Corfu was the gate of
the Adriatic, that the Adriatic was a part of the
Mediterranean, that the Mediterranean involved
the empire of the seas, and that the cession of the
lonian Islands would be the downfall of England.
(Laughter, and Hear, hear.) I do believe there are
persons who conscientiously entertain a view of
things not very different from that, but they have
found themselves in a minority so small that their
voice has never risen above a political whisper. (A
laugh.) Mr Mayor and gentlemen, in the cession of
the lonian Islands a marked homage has been paid
to principles of justice, and we who have gone about
preaching to others that they ought to have regard
to national rights, feelings, and traditions, have by
the cession of the protectorate of the lonian Islands
shown that we are ready to apply in our own case
the rules and maxims which we advised them to
apply. There is no denying that the people of these
islands, with great differences of opinion as to time
and circumstance, did look anxiously forward to
reunion to their glorious and distinguished race ;
they did not imagine the position of that race to be
now such as to justify the immediate application of
those epithets, but they looked with affectionate in-
terest upon the deeds of their forefathers, and they
cherished the hope that a future not unbecoming or
unworthy of the brilliant past might be at some
time preserved to them. That was a sentiment which
it was wise and just in us to respect. They would
have been less than human if they had not
cherished it. I would ask what we should think
of some portion of the great English race
severed from itself, and not of sufficient
magnitude or independence, and lying in
some geographical proximity to ourselves, if they
did not entertain the same feelings of anxiety for
union with us ? It is a precisely similar case with
the lonians. The inhabitants of those scattered
islands could not possibly become a nation of them-
selves. Their fellow countrymen, however, had
become a nation, and a free nation, and nature would
have been done violence to if they had not desired
to be reunited. We conceded to that deaire,and I am
convinced that the Government of Lord Palmerston
and Lord Russell, who were the authors of that
measure, though they took the lead of the sentiment
of their countrymen in the proposal, did not misin-
terpret that sentiment, and that if ever their policy
in that respect is challenged, it will receive the em-
phatic approval of the people of this country. I
won't refer by more than one word to the great
party conflict which took place at the end of last
session of Parliament. It is not a subject to which
we have any cause to refer with a sentiment of mor-
tificat'on. What is much more important in the
party aspect of it is this. I think the temper with
which it was viewed by the nation was a temper of
great wisdom and growing caution and circumspec-
tion, and that it was due to an opinion consolidat-
ing itself in the country that even to the strength
and resources which England possesses, and which,
as we well and firmly believe, are sufficient to
enable her to discharge every duty; yet it would not
be wise for her to overlook a regard to the propor-
tion of means and ends, or to entangle her in ens
gagements which she might ultimately find herself
incompetent to fulfil. I turn now to a question
which was a subject of some portion of the commu-
nication which passed between us eleven years ago,
and an important domestic question—l mean the
repeal of the excise duty on paper. At that time
Manchester, not only through its very distinguished
representative,Mr Gibson, but also by the action of
many of its leading citizens, took a prominent part
in promoting that repeal. It was surely a
very natural movement. We had taken away
the duties upon glass and uron soap, we had abo•
lished the interference of the excise with every
other branch of trade which has no other pur-
pose than the production of useful commercial arti-
cles. The paper duty alone remained. It was felt
that no principle could bo urged for its retention.
On merely commercial grounds it was right that it
should be repealed. The repeal of it, I may be per-
mitted to say, was found to be no easy matter—
(laughter)—but though it was not an easy matter
it has been accomplished. I am only going to speak
of one, but a very important, portion of those re-
..tilts—the simply economical part of those results.
I have no doubt it will take a long time to develop,
bat I adhere confidently to the opinion that it will
probably be found that fibrous materials—which
by the repeal of the paper duty have been come
pletely emancipated from any interference of the
Excise in any industrial process—will, perhaps in
no very long time, be found to be applicable use
fully to a multitude of purposes which never were
even ECI much as dreamed of, or if they were dreamed
of, could not be made the subject of practical prose-
cution as long as the paper duty continued in exis-
tence. But standing before a community which
entertained such decided opinions on that subject,
I must acknowledge the debt of gratitude which is
due to all the early promoters of the movement for
the repeal in connection with the moral and politi
cal consequences which that repeal has had in re-
spect to its effects upon the public press. I am not
going to say one word in disparagement cf the
public press of the country at any period of its
existence. My belief is that from the very first it
has been an organ of good immensely preponderat-
ing over the mischief. I mean now as it existed
tbree, four, five generations ago; in our time, as it
existed 20 years ago, it had reached to a position of
remarkable prominence and utility. The great
organs of the press, as you well know, are conducted
by some of the most accomplished minds of the
country—many of the articles written in those
ealinotf the paper duty w- re
he permanent literature
pwaopr et rhsy
obfe ftoarket
tang
hg ea repeal of the paper duty w- re
worthy of taking a pl pa
ce
of England. I well remember being in company
with Sir Robert Peel not less than 30 years back,
when a question was raised about the author-
ship of " Jnnius." You well remember how
great a national as well as a literary sensation
was produced at the time by the publication of those
letters. In point of fact, the intense controversy
with respect to the authorship may enable us to
measure the importance of those letters as a political
phenomenon of the times ; but when that question
was in discussion in private conversation the literary
merit of the letters themselves was also brought
under view, and I well recollect that Sir R. Peel
gave at once his opinion that the letters of
" Junius" were not as well written as the Times.
It was a great thing to possess a press in which the
mind of the country was so ably and fully
repre-
sented, in which public affairs and the conduct of
public men were so freely and incessantly canvassed
and discussed. That discussion is of inestimable
value to the country, and to none of more value
than to public men themselves. Certainly my own
view of the working of the press is, that upon the
whole, and for every domestic question, it is nearly
perfect—not that there are no passions, prejudices,
or errors, but that with perfect freedom of discus-
sion, and with organs representing every section of
opinion, passions, prejudices, and errors neutralise
one another. But with respect to foreign policy you
can have no such unmixed a result or such unmixed
good, because when strong national sentiment arises
with regard to some question of foreign policy then
opinion in this country flows one way in a degree
which is rarely the ease with respect to domestic
questions, and there is undoubtedly a great risk that
the press, partaking of the natural sympathies,
should lose a great part of its utility as a corrector
of error, and should inflame the very prejudices it
is desirable to correct and to remove. (Hear.) As
regards foreign policy the conductors of the press
themselves require to test moral self command and
self restraint. As regards domestic policy it is a
marvellous institution, which its practical working
as a whole comes near to perfection ; but still it
cannot be denied that 20 years ago it was not the
press of the people—it could not be from the price
at which it was sold, it could not and did not convey
to the people constant, full, and impartial informs.
tioniwith respect to public affairs. It was the press
of the upper classes—it answered every intellectual demand
we could make. It was a press to a great degree of the
middle class, or of the upper portion of the middle class—.
for them, too, it was a satisfactory institution—but this
genial and beneticial influence which it had for the mino.

rity of the country,it exercised only in a very limited degree
for the majority of the people. The repeal of the paper
duty has brought about a beneficial revolution in that re-
spect. You know how the press of England—l believe, all
things considered, the cheapest press in the world—is
bought by millions, or, at least, by hundreds of thousands,
and carries into every house full and accurate knowledge of
the state of public affairs, of what is now the relation of
feeling and affection between the people and those institu-
tions of the working of which they are constantly informed
—and, moreover, it carries with it into every house—if,
indeed, it were not found there before—but it strengthens
in every house those sentiments of affectionate loyalty to
the throne, of confidence in the Legislature, and profound
attachment to our institutions, and affectionate love for the
country in which they are born, and with a higher pride
and hope of England—thus it has led to great and worthy
results. Again I say, now every angry passion has sub-
sided, and it is not necessary to recal a painful feeling even
by incidental allusion, we must, I think, as a people, re-
joice that the press of England has been entirely set free
from every legislation and every fiscal restraint, that it is
as free as any portion of our institutions, and that it holds
a place among them so worthy and so distinguished.
(Cheers.) Mr Mayor and gentlemen, lam drawing near a
close of the remarks I have to make to you, but I must say
one word as to the condition of the community among
which you live. There, too, we have a remarkable chapter
in retrospect, and we have, as I hope, even a brilliant
chapter, not in the immediate, but in the somewhat more
remote prospect ; but the chapter in retrospect, the his-
tory of the last three years, is as valuable and as pre-
cious in many of the most important respects as
,has
been the recollection of th© brightest achievements of
our commercial and manufacturing industry and skill, for
it bears a moral aspect which is of inestimable interest and
value. What have we seen ? We have seen a population
counted almost by millions cast into distress, and we have
seen those:millions meet and encounter that distress. Speak-
ing of the vast, the enormous majority, and the public opi-
nion formed among them which controlled the character of
the whole, we have seen that distress borne even in the
height of its intensity without a murmur of discontent—
without a shock to confidence—with even an improvement
in moral character and conduct—with an exhibition of
patience, of self-command, of practical Christianity, such as
does the highest honour to the nation,and especially to that
country to which we all belong—(cheers) —but we have
seen also, what I will not dwell on at length—benevolence
and philanthropy exhibited in the finest and largest forms
by great numbers of those who have been blessed with the
means of relieving the distress of their neighbours,and who
have been placed in special relation to those neighbours as
the employers of their labour. However, I won't dwell on
a subject like that before parties who are interested in the
matter, but this I will say, that the machinery for the relief
of Lancashire distress has been a great important fact in it-
self, to think that the wants of hundreds of thousands, and
almost millions, could be met as they have been met—not
by the agency of the Government, not by convoking Parlia-
ment and passing special laws, not by the employment of
an army of official persons sent forth at the public charge
to ascertain, to record, and to regulate that relief, but by the
voluntary action of the community itself—by the mixed in-
fluence of Christian character and practical wisdom
thoroughly combined together—by the power of organisa-
tion made applicable on a gigantic scale to the relief of a
gigantic calamity—and thus is a fact almost new in the
history of the country—a fact which we can only appre-
ciate in its full magnitude and importance if we compare
it with the enormous waste, with the lamentable failure
in many respects, though I believe it was the very best
that could be done, and with the comparative barren-
ness of all moral le suit which attended the
immense expenditure of public money in the case of the la-
mentable Irish famine—we have seen in Lancashire every
class of men, we have seen professors of every grade of po-
litics and religion, we have seen the distinguished and emi-
nent leader of the Opposition—we have seen, under his
guidance and auspices, and with the aid of his great capacity
and habits of business, and an union of heart and of well-
directed, unflinching, and decisive efforts towards the attain-
ment of a great purpose, which, as the mere offspring of
private will, is, I think, without example in our history,
and it is one of the most remarkable proofs that can be given
of the fertilising and invigorating effect of free institutions
and their ancient tradition in the formation of individual
character. I hope from what I have said with regard to the
Irish famine that I shall not be supposed to intend to im-
pute that we did not do all that could be done with refer-
ence to the means at our command. There was an immense
amount of devoted labour, and of most intelligent as well as
magnificent liberality on the part of the country, but still it
was Government machinery, and 1 want you to see the in-
finite superiority of voluntary action in every such case.
(Hear.) The Legislature did not, however, forget that it
had a concern in the matter there was little for it to do, but
a provision of public money in the way of a loan was called
for. There were two leading opinions on the subject, chiefly
prevalent out of Lancashire, that resort should be had to a
rate in aid, and the other that there ought to be advances
from the Exchequer. In nay official capacity, when a de-
mand is made for a public grant or even a public loan, my
first impulse is to receive it with a moderate but still sen-
sible degree of jealousy and aversion—(a laugh)—but I can
confidently assure you that I never had the slightest senti-
ment of that kind in regard to the application from Lanca-
shire. (Cheers.) There wore some, but they were South-
erners, and knew no better—(a laugh)—there were some
who believed that the loan was only a grant in disguise,
and that when the time came there would be found much
difficulty as to the repayment. I for one was convinced from
the first that advances to Lanea,Lire would be repaid with
the same exact fidelity as any one among you would show
in meeting a bill drawn upon him for value received.
(Hear, hear.) Nay more, I was sure that if a loan had been
offered to Lancashire it would have been refused. (Hear,
hear.) I heartily rejoice that the opinion prevalent
in Lancashire was adopted, in preference to the
rate in aid, as the dominant principle of relief.
What little that had to be done, the Legislature has done
well and wisely under the auspices of my friend Mr Villiers,
but it was little indeed compared to the greatness of the
work to be performed. That work stands on a monument
to the great triumph and everlasting honour of free and
voluntary agency. Mr Mayor and gentlemen—a desire is
expressed in the address that I may be long spared to enjoy
the confidence of the Sovereign, and to perform services to
the country. (Cheers.) Well, after having completed 32
years in the public service one begins to think of a future
to be passed otherwise than in the exciting scenes of
political conflict. Indeed, I have seen grow up around me,
when a member of the liniversity, , a body of distinguished
men, almost every one of whom has now been laid low by
the hand of death, while engaged in the service of his coun-
try. lam reminded that no reliance must be placed on the
duration of the frail bodily life which we hold as a gift or
loan from the Almighty; still I also feel that whatever be
the time, and I cannot expect it will be a very long one,
whatever be the time remaining to me to be passed in pub-
lic life, it would be strange in a country Ike this if I did
not feel in common with the bulk of our public men
an earnest desire that the time should be passed faithfully
and honourably in the national service. Have we not every
encouragement and inducement ? We do not mistake the
freedom of comment on our acts, we know perfectly well
that it is due to the lively movement of the intellect of a
country incessantly engaged in examining public affairs;
and that freedom of comment is a great and essential safe-
guard of the public interest. We know that any errors
we may commit are indulgently regarded, while any
services we may assist in performing is generously and
nobly appreciated. We know this, also, that after all we
are no more than members of one great organisation ; we
may call ourselves rulers and governors of a people, but as
a people politically organised, and a movement of political
life passing through every class, and passing upwards quite
as much as it passes downwards, we may call ourselves
leaders, presidents, or commanding-officers, or what you
like ; but it is not by an action independently of you, it is by
co-operation with you that political results are to be achieved
whether we live in times of seal or times of relaxation, and
it is in common with you that we entertain zeal or relax into
quietude. But, gentlemen, permit me to express a hope that
this great community will continue to be upon its guard
against what I may call the principle of political lethargy.
That is not a sound nor a healthy principle. There are times
when I apprehended it would be the duty of any public man
in addressing a public assembly to endeavour to moderate
what seemed to him over-loving and excessive eagerness
even in work of reforming improvement ; but the time in
which we live is not a time of that character, it is rather a
time in which it is becoming that we should recall to our re-
collections that although so much has been done, and will
be done, to the honour of all parties concerned in this great
country during the last 30 years, yet that it behoves us to
continue cautiously, steadily, and justly, but firmly to con-
tinue in the tame career. We cannot look abroad over the face
et our country without feeling thet there is much that we
have yet to desire; we cannot look across the Channel to

Ireland, and especially to the state of feeling in Ireland, and
say that that state of feeling, taken as a whole, is becoming
for the honour and for the advantage of the United King-
dom; we cannot look upon our brethren and fellow citizens
there without heartily wishing that they were more en-
tirely united with us. We cannot say that their duty to
the people has been discharged. I do not say that Purl--
went is the faithful steward of the powers which it has re-
ceived ; it is governed by an enlightened desire to promote
the interests of the entire community; but that Parliament
has more than once heard an expression of the desire
that some extension should take place in the direct action
of the people iu the choice of its representatives. (Cheers.)
There cannot, I think, be a doubt that, wherever the state
of public feeling shall have matured for the satisfactory
entertaining of that question, one of the great demonstrative
facts of the moral claim of the people to have some exten-
sion of the franchise will rest upon the conduct of the popu-
lation of Lancashire during the distress Of the last few years.
If I refer to my own department, I look upon that as one in
which the business of reform can never be brought to its
termination, because you know very well that where there
ine
incessant
tendency I t
is money there is temptation. In the administration of
public money the principle of decay and corruption is con-
tinually
iso
an a
st work.an aotfi
oourn
tat nature
drn
raein a
that :slat
rer
is
at
o necessitydete r in i
n h
ti,n of public money, unless that tendency be corrected by
the vigilant attention of the Government, and still more of
the Parliament, and most of all of the people. (Cheers.)

It is to the action of the people themselves I look for sem-
rity. When the action is full and rife then Parliament will
discharge its proper duty as a control upon the executive in
its expenditure of the public money : and depend upon it,
when that position is reversed and that Government instead
of Parliament is the restraining power as regards expendi-
ture, that is a state of things calling for public attention, if
indeed it be the desire of the people that their concerns
should be honestly and fairly administered. Now, Mr
Mayor, I beg most cordially to thank you for the honour
which you have done me, which I do not interpret as a
formal compliment, and which I take to be much less a per-
sonal one intended for myself than as what it is in truth,
the symbol and practical indication of a sentiment happily
prevailing and well established in the public mind, a sen-
timent of general confidence in the minds of the commu-
nity as towards its Legislature and its Government. I
trust you will soon see the day when the present cause
for anxiety in.connection with the condition of your great
industrial occupations will have passed away. lam not so
sanguine as to hope that suffering is at an end, I am not
even so sanguine as to hope that the minor crisis which is
now upon the manufacturers of Lancashire will be the last.
You have had the whole of your concerns carried to a state
so remote from their natural and normal state that there is
much to go through in the return to it ; but I think on one
side the feeling, the energy, the zeal, and the enlightened
wisdom, and on the other side, the patience and the self-
command which have been able to bear a greater evil, will
be able to bear the less, and that you will before any long
time see your pursuits relieved from the pressure of the
causes of mischief akd inconvenience that are at present
sensibly affecting them : so that you will sea your great
cotton industry restored to an extension such as it never
yet enjoyed—(hear, hear)—and that causes which have im-
mediately had for result suffering and calamity will here
after be looked back upon as bequests, not only in their
moral, but even in their political results on a single, and
what in one sense we must deem a tainted source of sup-
ply, and by making the resources of many countries of the
world contribute to the supply of the industry which the
whole world is a debtor; for there is no portion of the world
which is not a debtor to the cotton industry of Lancashire.
(Loud cheers.)

A vote of thanks to the Mayor closed the proceedinge.