The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-13 00:00:00

T T.-I E 8 ti 14.4,

cseiou when Mr. Gibbs has made a speech to attack my
early career, to enter into any reply new. But wneu.
gentlemen, he Wks of eteediuees of conduct, when he
talks of steadiness of character, I, thiek I way anneal
to 15 years pissed in the House of Commons, M, 11, re it
cannot be said that at any time I have deserted a prin-
ciple or ever falsified a pledge.—(Cheers.) But, gen-
tlemen, when he asks who can trust me, I may
be permitted to say at present I possess the coutideniti of
my Most Gracious Sovereign, and that I hope Wore
the sun sets today I shall also be the recognised repre-
sentative of the people of Buckinghamshire.—(Cheers.)
Gentlemen, the Honourable Gentleman who proposed
my Honourable Opponent has told you that, though you
listened for a long time, and I *poke for a considerable
period, you would go away without any definite idea
of what were the intentions of the Government or myself
as a single member of it.—(Hear, hear.) Now, if
you will give me your patience, which I know
from your disposition you will do, it shall not
be my fault if you have not from me the most definite
description of what is the intended policy of her Ma-
jesty's Government.—(Cheers.) This I can say without
affectation, thatit shall never be said I had obtained power
upon false pretences. This Ido know, that all my promises
have been earnestly offered out of power, and now that I
am in power it shall be my earnest endeavour to put in
practice the policy which I have recommended on the
opposite benches —(Cheers) Gentlemen, I shall en-
deavour to convey to you without any equivocation, and
with as little reservation as can possioly subsist be-
tween a candidate in my peculiar position and those
whose suffrages I have solicited—(Hear, hear)—l will
endeavour to convey to you what are my intentions in a
mariner the most unequivocal, and what are my hopes.—
(Hear, hear.) But I must, in the first place, gen-
tlemen, recal to your recollection the circum-
stances under which the present Government
has succeeded to office.—(Hear, hear.) You must recol-
lect that it was on no motion that asserted the prin-
ciples which we have upheld—that it was not by a ma-
jority of the House of Commons sanctioning the policy
which we have always recommended—that we were
summoned by her Majesty to become her servants.
—(Hear, hear.) Had it indeed been upon a vote
of the House of Commons, which declared in a
manner which could not be mistaken thet the policy
which we recommended in.opposition should be imme-
diately carried into practice, there could have
been no doubt as to what should have been
our duty under the circumstances.—(Hear, hear )
But you will be pleased to recollect that it was internal
disease—that is was a division amongst themselves that
caused the late Government to fall—(Haar)—it was from
the arm of one who had long been their cherished col-
league and friend that the fatal blow was struck, and
unless we had obeyed the commands of her Majesty
her Majesty must have been without servants
and the country without a Government.—(Cheers.)
Gentlemen, there were duties to perform under these
circumstances which it was impossible could be ne-
giected.—(Cheers.) There were the urgent exigencies
of the moment which r quired immrdia'e attention—
(Cheers)—there were certain things which must be
done, whoever might be the Miniscer, or what
ever might be the policy which he might
ultimately place before the country. (Cheers.)
And I wish to know what evidence has been given by
the present Administration that they shrink from an
appeal to the counrry ?—(Cheers.) I wish to know 1
whether the present Administration has yet had an op-
portunity to do that which all public men of all sides
and shades of opinion agree it is absolutely neces-
sary for the public safety—for the public service—
should be done before that recurrence to the sense of the
nation should take place which is now on the lip or in
the mouth of every bode ?—(Cheers.) Well, then,
gentlemen, it is our duty to fulfill that which is
requisite and necessary; but while we are prepared 1
to do that, while we cannot for a moment suppose 1
that any obstacles can be raised to our doing
that which every man, whatever may be his political
oipnions, feels to be absolutely necessary for the service
of the State, rest assured that it is our wish that the
policy of this country should be such as we have re-
commended for many years on the benches of the Oppo-
sition.—(Cheers.), " What opposition?" said the Hon.
Gentleman who proposed my Hon. Opponent, with scorn
and contumely; he insinuated tnat it was an opposition
that had done nothing, and then with singular incon-
sistency he treated us to his own budget.—(A laugh.)
He recommended the measures which he thou,s,ht were
necessary to relieve the agricultural interest, mod every
measure which he recommended in spirit, if not in form,
is one of those measures which I myself year after year
have proposed in opposition, and by the aid, support,
and assistance of that opposition, I have yearly victo-
riously carried in a free-trade House of Commons.—
(Cheers.) Gentlemen, it is my wish to express, without
reserve, and in a foamier which cannot be mistaken, and
in language which no perversion of faction
can render equivocal, what are the intentions
ot Government upon this great point—(Cheers.) Gen-
tlemen, it is our opinion—the opinion which I myself as
your Member in the House of Commons have frequently
expressed—that when the great changes of 1846 were
carried, they were carried in a spirit of great precipita-
tion—l might almost say of panic—and they were
carried without a due regard to three impor-
tant productive interests whose fortunes for a time,
as the event has proved, were sensibly affected.—(Hear,
hear.) For example, in 1846, you repealed the old
corn-laws. (A voice—" And a good thing too.") You
repealed them without any condition. You repealed them
without considering the burden to which the agricultu-
ral interest was subjected, and which they were
always recommended to endure, because they pos-
sessed those corn-laws.—(Hear.) You also, for example,
altered the colonial system, to which one of my Hon.
Friends has referred to-day.—(Hear, hear.) You changed
the whole course of your colonial policyCafter having
bowed to a passionate conviction ot the people of Eng-
land and increased your national debt to terminate
slaver}, you opened your markets to slave-
grown produce in a manner which even one
of your most celebrated Free-traders has declared to
be most unjustifiable.—(Cheers.) So again, very shortly
afterwards, you ebrogaied your maritime code, but
while you torced British shipping, for example, into corn•
petition with the shipping of all the world, you left upon
the British seaman and the British shipowner restrictions
of a very onerous and injurious character.—(Cheers.)
And, therefore, these',three:great interests, and I take
them only as an illustration, were dealt with moat un-
fairly, for while acting under circumstances of great
emergency, you came to a settlement, which, in
fact, as far as these great interests were
concerned, was no doubt unjust.—(Cheers.) Because,
remember this, gentlemen, that so tar as the three cases
I have taken were concerned, even those who vindicate
that peculiar system, which I think is unjustly called a
system of free trade, admit that the settlement
was not carried into effect on principles of
of political and financial justice.—(Cheers.) But
what says the Hon. Gentleman who proposed my op•
ponent, who was a Free-trader, and who has given us a
lively and picturesque description of cottage life?—(A
laugh)—all of which might have existed and, indeed.
did exist, under the old system ?—(Ciies of " No, no.")
I repeat that it did exist, and I will quote
an authority which I am sure the Hon. Gentleman
will consider a very high authority, indeed. I mean
the late Mr. Cobbett, whose descriptions of cottage life,
when protection existed, were almost as lively as pic-
turesque, and as poetical as his own.—(A laugh.) But,
gentlemen, don't let us be diverted from the argument by
this slight circumstance. I say that, without reference to
the agricultural interest itself, here is an uncompromising
Free-trader who tells you that it is true and just that the
question of the poors'-rate should be settled. Why, what
is that but an admission that, as respects the produce of
British industry, which has been thrown into competi-
tion with the general produce of the world, the question
of local taxation which he described as being so unjust
and grievous, should have been settled at the time the
change was made?—(Cheers.) Take now the case of
sugar.—(Hear, hear.) If I wanted to establish the in-
justice of the present system, should I go to the chair-
man or the deputy-chairman of a protection society?
No, I should go to Mr. Deacon Hume, the founder of
the commercial system which the late Sir Robert
Peel adopted.—(Hear, hear.) Nay, I might quote
Sir Robert peel's own words in reference to the repu-
diated measures of Lord John Russell iu 1846, of which
se, et,. reel aid see, approve, because he said sugar was
taken out of the category of free trade in consequence of
the abolition of slavery, which would render it
an act of injustice, if not of illegality,
to place the colonial producers in competition
with the foreigner.—(Hear, hear.) Why here are two
admitted cases without referring to the shipping case,—
(Chesrs.) But nu one can deny—no human being has
!.ver tiptoed, that our Bruisis seamen and shipowners, in
being placed in competition with the entire world, there
umu ,ry
they bee
• injuries. oughtl to be entirely unrestricted, and
fEorrecee,
traders cheering
lawsno which
hr
asru,,bjesctaieldl
keptto allin
those vexatious
crippling their resources and increasing their
Free-
traders k'eeere'rionng
all sides.) Why, here are the
me.—(A laugh.) Here are
rests in admitting that in three great instances, and inte-
capital is whichand sled' greatest
amount
of
British
shipping, and the namely, the agricultural, the
wfonrywibsetushelheenterta. .
colhnial, the settlement has
been precipitate—ten
a r
eiatav
having
vgnhaaalcnietaaoiesd.e n unjust.—
(WChilaete rt
sh. e) n is the the use se e oft A?
wlaubgyhi.s)
portent to me.--.--
Friend—wb . in such sincere respect
unanimous.—(A
Y la he, as it were, pulled
a(a snA mil niyda i4lei d.a)tir Learned _
a
from
man the
with classwhoic shmad he eof
Healrtwell Hall to fight against
si
,rt agree.i ....re.y ageee,e_ (Cheers.)
A VOICE.—They don
Mr. DIsRAELL—They don't agree! Then they aro
determined to support an injustice which they denounce.
—(Cheen..) Now, gentlemen, permit: me to entreat a
continuance of that earnest patience which you
have already bestowed upon me, but pry understane
I ask you to listen, not from any „in
wish
to address you, but being one of her Majesty's Ministers
I am anxious that it should not be said hereafter that I
had attempted to cone-Ail the policy which we intend to
pursue.—(Cheers.) If you
will give me your attention
for a moment I will tell you frankly and openly what
we think and what we wish to do.—(Cheers.) Well,
then, gentlemen, it is our opinion that in the years 1846
to 1849 great injustice was done to many great interests
in which a vast, an immense amount of capital is in-
vested, and upon which much labonr depends; and it is
also our opinion that justice should now be done them.
—that justice should, in fact, be done to all classes—
(Ch, ers)—and if the premises I have stated be true,
willshould
as. ume r. —(Lond cheers.)
agreeb we idt
oh n me, et so t
thha
et
Bri-
tishi tis
quitep gentlemen,highro du c teirmaaesathatlw el surel
asjusticeyo tu h e
We are not ashamed to say it is our political creed that
justice should be done to all classes, tied if that be true
you will agree with me that justice should be done
consumer.—(Hear.)
Britishpr Ifdue we can show
_and
to the British
and it is not dif-
ficult, for all acknowledge it—
that there are great clung ,