The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-12 00:00:00

pressed upon us, promptly and effectually set about pro-
viding tor the defence of the country, not neglecting
but cherishing ancient alliances, alliances very valuable
when not forced or purchased, but which had their
origin in a common interest, and to be maintained by
constant good offices, and scrupulous good faith, good
faith as between Government and Government, and good
offices as between people and people. (Cheers.)
The Earl of DERBY—Before I proceed to any other
of the topics upon which it may be afterwards necessary
to trouble your Lordships, there is one topic which I am
sure all anticipate that it is impossible for me to avoid
touching on shortly, and it shall be very short indeed,
because that topic is one that is foremost in the minds
not of your Lordships only, but of every man in the
country, and almost, I might say, of every nation in the
world. It is impossible that we should reassemble here
without remembering and deploring the great loss we
have sustained. As I rose to address your Lordships
my eye instinctively turned to the head of this table; but
I miss there the once familiar face, with his hand up-
raised to assist the infirmity of his hearing, as conscien-

tiously and laboriously he sat to listen to the observations
of the humblest member of your Lordship's house.
Again I see him rising amid the greatest silence of your
Lordships, and with faltering accents, with no studied
eloquence, but with a pocv(,r that grasped and seized, as

it were intuitively, upon the very marrow of the matter
in hand, slowly and deliberately dropping, as it were,
among your Lordships, the pithy and sententious words
of matured sagacity, of matured experience, and matured
wisdom. His unparalleled achievements in the field, his
possession of all the qualifications which mark the great
military leader, his sagacity in council, his unswerving
loyalty, his deep and unparalleled devotion to the in-
terests of his country—all these are already written in
the undying pages of history—all these are already
graven upon the grateful hearts of an unforgetting
people, But, alas! he is gone to another and a better
place, and with all reverence be it spoken, there peaceful
and happy be his state. In the course of his long life,
in the battlefield at the head of his troops, in the con-
grees of monarchs, in the councils of his nation, in the
cabinet of his colleagues, in the closet of his sovereign,
in the assembled parliament, unseduced by the lustre of
his own bright name and undazzled by the splen-
dour of his own transcendent glory, he steadfastly
resisted listening to the aspirations of any wider
ambition, and east away from him as unworthy
of consideration thoughts of personal interests. My
Lords, from such a subject I turn with regret to subjects
it may be of far lower interest, yet subjects, as the
noble marquis has said, of very considerable importance.
[His lordship then paid a tribute of admiration to the
noble mover and seconder of the address for the ability
they had displayed, and thanked the noble marquis
(Lansdowne) for the friendly tone in which he bad
spoken. He proceeded to say]—lt a a source of satis-
factiou to me that the address is not in the course of the
discussion likely to lead to any difference of opinion.
Nor do I at all complain of the humour and the irony
with which the noble marquis has treated one part of
the subject. It is necessary for me now to state to
your lordships the view of her Majesty's government.
I thank the noble marquis and my noble and learned
friend for the language they have held with regard to
the state of our foreign relations, for I concur with them
that while it is our duty to abstain, in the slightest
degree, from interfering with the internal affairs of any
other nation, while I recognize to the fullest extent the
right of every nation to regulate its own affairs, I, look-
ing not to the language alone, bat to the acts also of
foreign nations, am bound to say that I see no appre-
hension at the present time of the interruption of our
friendly relations with any one of those powers, what-
ever may be their form of government. On the other
hand, I cordially concur with the noble marquis, and
with my noble and learned friend, that it is nut in the
professions, it is not in the friendly acts, it is not in the
attitude of any foreign country, that a nation must trust
which desires to be independent and to be respected, but
while she is desirous to maintain the good will of all
foreign nations, and is anxious to avoid all causes of
offence, her real permanent security must rest upon her
own capacity for internal defence, upon the hetkrts in the
first instance of her own subjects, and in the next upon
the organization of her own forces. (Cheers.) And I
think it is a subject of congratulation that notwithstand-
the efforts made in various quarters by persons of whom I
will only say that I think they have taken a must mistaken
part, to prevent the format ionof the purely defensive force
which was established by the act of the last session of parlia-
ment, and which, as my noble friend has reminded your
lordships bad the sanction which was given in the lass
speech of the n ,ble and gallant duke to your lordships,
I say, notwithstanding the efforts which have been made
by those parties to prevent the formation and organisa-
tion of that force, it is a matter of congratulation to find
there is still throughout the country the strong British
feeling of attachment to the institutions of the country,
and that attachment demonstrated not by words but by
actions, which has already, notwithstanding many diffi-
culties, brought iato the field, and, to a great extent, to
a state of efficiency, as fine and as able a body of the
young men of this country as ever volunteered their ser-
vices for the defence of the country. (Hear, hear.) Nor
will I deny that there is much to be done for the material
defence of the country. That is a topic on which lam
sure your lordships will not expect that I should detain
you. It will be sufficient if I say that the the attention
of her Majesty's government has been and continues to
be directed to that most important subject, and no doubt
their hands and their means in providing for the defence
of the country, without the desire of offence to any
foreign power, will not be inconsiderably strengthened
by the tone and language which the noble marquis has
had the good sense and the good feeling to address to us
this evening. (Cheers.) I will not touch on any of the
topics of the speech relating to our foreign relations, or
indeed on any topic except one of those to which the
noble marquis has adverted, because—important as they
all are, and confident as I feel that her Majesty's govern-
ment, whenever discussion shall take place upon any of
them, will be able to justify the course which they have
pursued, and the measures which they intend to recom-
mend to parliament—this is not the occasion, nor is it
desired on any of these subjects to pledge your lordship?,
by agreeing unanimously to this address, to the assertion
of any principle, as connected with any of these mea-
sures. But there is one topic, and that one of paramount
importance, upon which I think I shall not discharge
my duty to your lordships and the country if Ido not
say a few words. I advert to that passage of her Ma-
jesty's speech in which she congratulates the country,
and I believe with very good reason, upon the improved
condition of the country generally, and more
especially of the industrious classes. When I say the
improved condition I mean this :—For a course of three
or four years, since a period of great difficulty, of great
misery, and of great national calamity, there has been a
gradual, and to my mind a most satisfactory, progress in
each year in improvement over the year preceding, until
at last in the year 1852, I believe we have returned in
every respect to, and in some we have gone beyond, the
period of 1846, which was a period of great and acknow-
ledged national prosperity. lam not now speaking of
causes, I am speaking of facts, and I will not trouble
your Lordships with many of them at present, but I will
refer to some which I consider to be the bast tests of the
real condition of the industrious classes of this country.
I believe you can take no better criterions than, for ex-
ample, the amount of pauperism, and the consumption
of different articles—such as tea, coffee, cocoa, tobacco,
sugar, and all those other articles which enter into the
consumption of the great body of the people, and with
regard to which, those being articles of exclusive foreign
importation, we are capable not merely of ascertaining
the amount which has been imported, but also the amount
which has been consumed, without the possibility of the
admixture of any article grown in this country, the
amount of which, of course, greater or less, would mate-
rially air:et the calculation. I find, then, that with re-
gard to all these articles there is within the last few year
a continuous and progressively rapid increase of con-
sumption, from which I think we may fairly argue that
the great mass of the people, so far as their expenditure
would directly show itself in the consumption of these
articles, are in a state of gradual improvement. I lock
again to the condition of the savings banks of this coun-
try. Few circumstances more peculiarly show the
condition of the country than the proportion between the
amount substracted item and the amount deposited in
savings banks. Mind, lam not now speaking of the
number of depositors or the amount of deposits, because
the amount of deposits and the number of depositors du
not really exhibit the real amount of contributions saved.
But in the course of the years 1847, 1848, and 1849,
there was a diminution in the amounts vested in the
savings banks of a most formidable character. I will
not trouble your Lordships with many figures, but this
is a circumstance which marks in a very striking man-
ner the mode in which the distress of some years back
operated in cliff-rent places in the country, and the pe-
riod at which the tide began to turn towards prospe-
rity. I hold in my hand a table which, dividing the
various districts of this country, into the agricultural
district and the manufacturing district, exhibits in each
year since 1646 the amount put on and the amount
withdrawn, and the balance between these will be an
indication of the prosperity of the country. In the
agricultural districts I find this remarkable fact. In
the year 1846, towards the close of that year, there
were withdrawals beyond deposits to the amount of
80,4341, In the year 1847, the balance of withdrawals
again-it deposits was 335,0001; in 1848, it was no less
than 782,0001.; in 1849, it was 379,0001.; in 1850, it
was 542,0001.; in 1851, the adverse balance diminished
to 165,0001.; and in the course of the present year it
was within a few hundred pounds, I am happy to say,
of the most prosperous of former years. That is so
far satisfactory ; but these statistics show that from
1848 to 1852, great sufferings were inflicted on the
agricultural population; for in those four years alone
the balance withdrawn from savings banks in the agri-
cultural districts nearly amounted to 2,500,000/. The
manufacturing districts exhibited in certain of these
years a similar decline. In the years 1846 and 1847,
there was a preponderance of withdrawals over depo-
sits to the amount of 330 000/. But in 1848-9, 1850,
185„1, and 1852, in each of those years there has been
in tavour of the manufacturing districts an increase of
cifreoraposiftnrying from 200,0001. to 400,000/. Therefore,
evidence ri°ll
samiti_a:Vailt_o 1852, there is exhibited with regard to
of a reourrener
the Cu
mks. the same evidence which is exhibited in
of articles of prime necessity—the
which
lords, in detailing Zed
nstantly improving state of things and
was toitehat condition of national prosperity
in 1846. I say, again, my
not shrink from
am not giving o,,,eaese things I am stating facts—l
ainLmy
ezpresittt, at the same time, I will
to some at least of the a
opinion with regard
to which we are to look
in explaining the frusta
:Lin these returns. And
I do not hesitate now in
that, in my view a great po.c7n,S Ulla nonedgment
—" therperity of