The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-26 00:00:00

Earl De Grey and Ripon on the Danish

War and Taxation.

On Friday the Ripon and Clare Agricultural
Society held their first public dinner in the Town-
hall, Ripon, after which the toast of" Her Majesty's
Ministers" was drunk with cheers, on the proposal
of Mr Lysaght.
Earl DE GREY and Ripon, who occupied the chair
as president of the society, responded to that toast,
and in doing so said he was sure that upon such
occasions it was quite out of order, and it was quite
right that it should be so, that they should talk
politics. But he recollected a saying of his noble
friend at the head of the Government, which he
might be permitted to quote in regard to this toast,
which was very apposite to what had fallen from
Mr Lysaght. On one occasion, when the Premier
had to return thanks for the same toast in an assem-
bly containing men of all parties, he assured those
who differed from him that they might moat con-
scientiously and honestly drink the health of her Ma-
jesty's Ministers, inasmuch as the best thing which
could happen to their physical health would be their
being turned oat of office. (Laughter), Bat he (the
chairman) would let his friends take it whichever
way they would, and whatever might be the party
differences which existed, and always did exist
in
every free country, and without which a free Con-
stitution could not be worked, he believed he should
not misinterpret the spirit in which this toast had
been received if he went so far as to express a hope
that he might conceive it to imply that those present
did not disapprove the main principles which had
guided the general conduct of her Majesty's Govern.
meat in the administration of the affairs of the coun-
try. (Hear.) The task which they had had before
them during the past twelve months had been one
of no ordinary difficulty, and one which it would be
easily believed had caused them no ordinary anxiety.
(Hear.) They saw going on in Europe an attempt
which they held to be unjustifiable and violent to
invade the rights of a small nation on the part of
certain of the great Powers of Europe for objects of
which they could not approve, and in a cause with
which they could feel no sympathy. They were en-
titled to lift up their voices in common with the
other great Powers of Europe who were not belli-
gerents in the quarrel, and freely to express their
opinions upon the questions at issue. They did so,
but they were not bound—this country was not
bound—by any treaty engagement which rendered
it a point of honour with them to engage in the
quarrel on the part of Danmark. If that had been
so, her Majesty's present Government would not
have hesitated for a moment—no Government that
could exist in this country would have hesitated at
once to draw the sword in any quarrel in which the
honour and good faith of England were engaged.
(Hear.) Bat the treaty to which England was a
party was one to which other great Powers of Europe
were parties also, and it was right, it was wise, he
thought, on the part of prudent men that they should
endeavour to go hand in hand with the other Powers.
They were not called on by any special obligation to
engage single-hunled in a contest.in which others
were as much interested as the English Government,
and although they made known their sympathies—
although they did not hesitate to assure the other
great Powers that they were prepared to co-operate
with them in any measures they might mutually
agree upon, yet they did not feel they should be jus-
tified in involving this country in the enormous evils
of war, when they found France and Russia unpre-
pared to drive matters to that extremity, and un.
willing to follow them in that path. (Hear, hear.)
He believed that in the course the Government then
took—that was to say, in the efforts they made for
the preservation of peace, and in their determine.
tion not to bring war upon this country, they were
supported by the great body of the people of every
shade of opinion. (Cheers.) The task, es he had
said, was a difficult one. They used every endeavour
in their power at first to avert the outbreak of war
in Europe, knowing well to what enormous exten-
sion such a war might possibly attain, and when it
did break out they need every endeavour to bring
that war to a termination. It was quite true those
efforts made at the Conference in London were uot
successful, but it was no easy task, as all must know,
in private life to bring to reasonable terms two per-
sons involved in hot quarrel, the one having on his
side the weight of power and wealth, and numbers
and great population at his back ; the other having
a strong and embittered feeling of injustice, coca.
bleed with weakness. (Hear, hear.) Welt., then,
he said, they did well, and he thought it was their
right and their duty to make every effort they could
on the part of England to put a stop to the effusion
of blood, while at the same time the Government
bad had, as he had already said, the support of the
country in not having involved the nation in war,
and in not having run the risk of extending those
hostilities throughout the length and breadth of
Europe. (Hear.) And he believed that that course—
a firm desire to maintain this country at peace—a
determination to uphold its honour, to fulfil all its
obligations, and at the same time not to rush hastily
into quarrels if they could possibly avoid it, and
bring upon the country the evils of war,—he be-
lieved such a policy was one which would receive,
and ought to receive, the approval of such an assem-
bly as the one ho was addressing. They who were
engaged in the pursuits of agriculture must feel
that the maintenance of peace was of the first im-
portance to a country like England—to a country
in which industry of every description, agricultu-
ral and manufacturing, was spreading every day,
and in which that industry was more and more in-
dependent upon that most delicate instrument which
was called " credit," which shut up at the first
breath of war, and which when it did shut up
brought wide-spread ruin, not only upon manu-
facturing, but upon agricultural industry also. Such,
then, was the policy which had guided her Majesty's
Government in those difficult foreign questions with
which they had bad to deal during the present year.
It had been their policy from the commencement—
in the Italian question, in the American question ;
and now again in this Danish question they had
laboured to keep the country out of war, and at the
same time they had never failed to uphold, as he
believed, their honour whenever it was needed.
With respect to domestic affiirs there was not much
in these days which could be said in regard to the
duties of the Government in relation to agriculture.
There was a time when men believed that the Go-
vernment had the means of greatly promoting the
prosperity of agriculture, and when every one
engaged in that pursuit was inclined to lean upon
the broken reed of protection. Prophecies were
made, when protection was abandoned, of the
ruin that was coming upon the agricultural
interest and of the ruin which would come after-
wards upon the country at large. Those pro-
phecies had all proved futile. Facts had proved
stronger than theories; the advance of years had
dispelled the dreams of false prophets; and there
were now few who did not believe that in agri-
culture, as in every other branch of industry, that
which the Government could best do was to strike
off shackles and remove fetters, aad that which
those engaged in agricultural pursuits could best
do was steadfastly to rely upon themselves. Well,
then, as he had said, it was little in those days that
Government could do for agriculture and for trade.
His friend the Rev. Mr. Powell (a previous speaker)
had spoken upon the unpleasant subjea of taxation
and had alluded in terms which he (:he chairman)
supposed were very true, but perhaps would not
have been very pleasant if he had been present, to
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and not alone to
his right hon. friend, Mr. Gladstone, but to any
one who filled that powerful office—but he (the
chairman) was bound at the same time to say that
the insatiable desire for a sufficient amennt of. tax-
htiol to meet the demands of the country which he
found in his right hon. friend had been truly de-
scribed by Mr. Pawell. His right hon. friend had
put his hand very largelyth indeed into his (the
eh airnaan't<) poevt,
liked, but ho hurl felt, es more 1 irgely than he
chMr. Powell had felt, and
as all must feel if they dc,ired
to see tho country
groat—if they drank with enthusiasm The Health
of the Army and Navy "—if they &liked to see the
flag of England maintained untarnished and its
reputation unsullied, they must be prepared to pay
for it. (Hear, hear.) But ho believed—and the
story of the last fet years was there to prove it—
that there was few, if any, men in this country who