The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-04 00:00:00

and especial suspicion of the present ruler of that country.
Now, he did not believe that ; but, for the sake of argu-
ment he would admit that the supporters of this
Bill did believe it. Well, where were the grounds
for it? It should be remembered that there was
always a party in this country in favour of a panic—any
sort of a panic—and that a cry of suspicion against France,
and for consequent raititary expenditure, was always ready.
They should remember that Sir T. Hastings, a distinguished
military officer, insisted in his evidence before the Com-
mittee that the French had a burning desire to come to this
country to revenge Waterloo, and he quoted as one of his
authorities the Bishop of Madagascar.—(Hear, hear, and
a laugh.) But had the people of France shown a single
symptom that they were anxious to pick a quarrel with this
country ? Neither in the time of Louis Philippe, nor under
the Provisional Government of Lamartine, nor under the
Republic and National Assembly, nor under the President,
had the people of France exhibited the slightest hostility to
England. if such a feeling had existed, however, surely
under all those changes it would have been manifested.—
( Hear, hear.) It had not been manifested, and he con-
tended, therefore, that as far as the people of France were
concerned, there was not one shadow of ground for this
Eill.—(Hear, hear.) Look at the conduct of our press. He
did not wish the English press to shut its mouth when any-
thing was enacted in foreign nations which it believed to
be contrary to freedom; but our press had for two months
maintained an incessant daily fire of accusations against the
ruler, and too often against the people of France. The
French press during all that time, though under the control
of the President, had never retaliated, or attempted to
create in the minds of the French people a feeling anta-
gonistic to the people of this country. He would admit, for
the sake of argument, that the French President had shown
greed of power, that he was cool, reserved, calculating, and
unscrupulous; but it must be remembered that he was ep-
prcved by the majority of the French population; and, if
there were ens reason more than another why he was so, it
was because he had not plunged them into war. He ad-
mitted that they did not like the theory of his government,
but if the French people, disagreeing in that, yet supported
him because he had given them a permanent or temporary
repose, the House might depend upon it that they would not
rest a single instant if he should manifest the slightest inten-
tion of sending a piratical or marauding expedition against
this country_ There were no preparations made in France. No-
body had shown that any more ships had been added to the
French navy or troops to the French army since December last.
He was surprised that among the extraordinary fallacies
which had been ,stated in the House upon this question, no
one had ventured to state that Louis Napoleon had done
what his renowned uncle was said to have done when he
proposed to invaie England, viz., that he had put up
finger-posts upon all the roads converging towards Boulogne
marked " The weer to London," with a hand pointing
across the Channel. A story of this kind would have
created a panic much: more successfully than some things
which had been stated with that object. He recommended
Hon. and Gallant Members to try it the next time they
wished to create a pan ic.—( Laughter.) There were two
suppositions on which e.'ae House was invited to proceed
sv
war
r ande. Tt
hh
nen. . Unlit wasats
oant
;t there
and
twhoeuslde e be
ne
da
wd a
se -
cwl trha t itohni s omf
that there would be a piratical and marauding expedition
aditefinoyns theretthhnatwt,
,uu
fsn
awdgeaerrst anokfneheninvdi in
yl tzhletaded night.an attei
1
"waceconatr
wgl a
art
ran t
de-
served ohe ne.
nations
—Ne
fl wt
on'
da
toe cn
served to be called civilized—(Hear, hear)—there must be
negotiation and delay to such an extent as to allow time
for some of that immeasurable foi 'cc which the Hon. Mem-
ber for Tyrone (Mr. Corry) had spoken of being brought
into the Channel to defend our shores.—(Hear, hear.) The
Noble Lord the Member for Tiverton had spoken of 50,000
men landing in one night. [An Lion. Member-60,000.]
Well, 60,000 ; the Noble Lord was not particular to a 10,000 ;
but he ( Mr. Bright) believed that 60,00'9 were just as likely
as 50,000, and 70,000 just as likely as 60,000. But what
would Louis Napoleon gain by adopting that course?—for
men did not act without motives. He would ask the soldiers
in that House to say whether they thought that the French
army were likely to see any glory—he was not saying in a
war with England, but in a piratical expediOon against this
country ? Did they believe that Louis Napoleon would be
safe in the French Government one single month after he
took the step which some Members of that Hoer.se assumed
that he was likely to take? Did they not think iehat Russia,
Austria, Prussia, would league themselves against such an
attempt on the part of the Government of France?—for,
was it not worth more to the settled Governments of Europe
that the ancient and venerable monarchy and the settled in-
stitutions of England should be maintained, rather then that
a firebrand, such as Honourable Members wished to make
out the President to be, should rule over the rrench
nation?—(Hear, hear.) If, then, there was no other motive
the motive of self-preservation alone would prevent Louis
Napoleon from taking such a step against the people avid
Government of this country. But, to return to the state-
ment of the Noble Lord the Member for Tiverton, with re-
spect to the probability of 60,000 men landing in one night,
he begged to say that it was an incredible statement for a'
statesman of his experience to make. But, assuming that
this invading force were to escape our fleet, and that our
troops were dispersed and unable to meet them, how did the
R:ght Hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for the Home
Department expect to be able to get the militia to meet
them? Why, with the help of the electric telegraph he
would be able to get the dispersed soldiers to the coast before
those agricultural labourers, weavers, and mechanics had
got on their clothes.—(Laughter.) In his opinion, no case
whatever had been made out in favour of the present Bill.
He protested against the inconsistency of the House. In
his boyhood he remembered that the cry was for reliance upon
" the wooden walls of England," and poets made songs and
odes of all kinds on the subject, such as—
" Britannia needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep ;
Her march is o'er mountain wave,
Her home is on the deep."
But now the wooden walls as well as the military ser-
vice were forgotten for the moment for the blundering, miser-
able, undisciplined horde which was proposed to be brought
together by this Militia Bill.—(Hear.) The Hon. and Gal-
lant Member for Chippenham had stated that the army had
been reduced since 1848. Well, that very fact ought to be
a warning both to that lion. Gentleman and the Govern-
ment, because the military expendifure at that time was
such—amounting as it did to 17,000,0002., 18,000,0001., or
19,000,000/. a year, that the people were positively alarmed
and horrified at the course which the Government were pur-
suing, and insisted upon a reduction ; and he warned the
present Government that if they either passed the present
Militia Bill, or added to the army without making out a
better case than they had yet been able to do, they too
would ere long be obliged to yield to the popular demand
for military retrenchment.—(Hear, hear.) His opinion was,
that if there was anything like a real, thorough, imminent
danger in the case, there was not a soldier, or a policeman,
or a man in any way connected with the military service in
the kingdom who might not be made available for the pur-
poses of defence, for he was sure that in such an event any
county, city, borough, parish, or hamlet would secure its
own peace, and leave the military and police to be placed
at the hands of Government for the general defence.—
(Hear, hear.) But the fact was that the present was no-
thing more nor less than a mere panic, than which there
was nothing, in his opinion, more adverse to genuine pa-
triotism and true statesmanship. Sometimes a ,political
panic was got up for the purpose of trading upon it. Last
year the bishops got up an ecclesiastical panic and. traded
military service, which was
upon it, and this year the
..
the military expenditure, were
always anxious to increase
Hear, hear.) So long
trading upon a railitaryt panic.—(ithad been said that in the
ago as the time if Ta9.ue
science and the military pro-
course of a long peace military
se
and to fall '
into neglect, and
pro-
fession were apt to be forgotten
it was to prevent this that all this disturbance and alarm
more and money
had been created, and in order that
expenditure.—(
Heamorer, hear.)
might be voted for military e
He (Mr. Bright) would take upon himself to say that
the Noble Lord the Member for Tiverton was the father
favour of a Militia
of this Bill. The Noble Lord was in favo
it was that
Bill in 1848.—(Hear, hear.) In truth,
Lord did not deny
Noble Lord's hobby, and the Noble
it. He presumed that in the exercise for of his great influence
over the Noble Lord the Member London ha had dragged
h
e uestion
that Noble Lord into his views of t
was the Noble Lord afraid of? He could hardly;bbut e seriouswhat
in anticipating an invasion
of 50,000 men from a ruler whose
ht) last he had thought it
extraordinary conduct in Decrei
was not
_sure that in his
right to applaud. He (Mr.. B g
not say that
dispatch the Noble Lord did r
by he thought the
peace of Europe would be mad th
sa e e course Louis
Napoleon took upon. this occasion.— Hear ( , hear.) But he
would say at once that the Noble Lord was no authority
with him on questions of. this nature.— (A laugh.) He did
not pretend to Set his opinion against the Noble Lord's. The
House probably thought the Noble Lord a much be tt
authority that he (Mr. Bright) was.—(Cheers from er
Ministerial benches.) The views of the Noble Lord
wthe
re-
gard to a militia were perfectly consistent
political schemes. The establishmentof with
is
would liberate so many soldiers from a militia
The creed of the Noble Lord, so foreign service-
had observed, had always b far as he (Mr. Brighty
uni-
versal diplomacy and incessantbeen in favour of
countries. He wished always interference with other
always seemed to have the to have the power, as he
ing somebody or some disposition, of cajoling or bully-
Hon. and Learned foreign country.—(Laughter.) The
was his great champion Gentleman the Member for Sheffield, who
called the Noble Lord two years ago, on one occasion
Bright) presumed thatth " a lucifer match."—He (Mr•
as an extinguisher in is great military force was required
case of any case of incendiarism break-
ing out.—(Renewedl
had already paid laughter.) But be thought the counteY
Noble Lord withenough for some of the projects of Lao
(Cries
of regard, to Africa, Brazil, and elsewhee
" ') The efforts of the Noble Lord to do so
much for freedom abroad, while he did so little for it at
home, reminded him of one of the characters in the new
work of Mr. Dickens, so mach so, that he felt disposed to
call him the Mrs. Jellaby of statesmen--(Laughter.) He
opposed the Bill, because no case of urgent necessity had
been made out, and no proof had been adduced that the
fleets and troops of this country were insufficient. Military
men differed in everything with respect to this Bill except
that the Government plan would be useless for defence. He
wished the House. to bear in mind that every argument
which had been used inifavour of the present Bill, or for an
increase of our, forces, would be just as powerful next session
in favour of an additional increase, for what they were dia.,
cussing was not so mach a question of fact as of impression
and sentiment.—(Cries of "Divide!") He should not
trouble the House by entering into the details of the Go-
vernment Bill—( Hear, hear)—because he objected not only
to the present Bill, but to any increase of force in substitu-
tion of ,that pibposed, there being no case of necessity
made out. There was one thing he would tell the Home
Secretary, for it was an argument he could appreciate, that
there was scarcely any one who had been connected with the
militia 50 y ears ago but was ruined in character.—(" Oh, oh I")
He was stating the experience of the very men who had ex-
plained the matter to him, for he was not old enough to
remember it himself, but he 'believed that so far as tne°ff
industrious avocations were concerned, the men eeneVre
with the militia, on retiring from the service, were intatea,
character, morals, and in their prospects in life.—(m °
Christien
and cries of " No.") When he was addreseintgof
this
reesentatives of a Christian nation on a further na-
ture—whenshe
he was endeavouring to show thatueeecessary, he
penditure for warlike armaments was
t would be fairly
ehould, at least, expect that his argumenasbie
and Learned
onour
cousidered.—(Hear, hear.) The 1-1 casion took on
former oc
Member for Sheffield on a peace party—(Hear,
him to sneer at what he called
threedlo court,tcheers from
hear)—and he received, as he a ee
"etut the peace party could
the opposite side of the House.
rt
would last longer than
' stand those sneers ; the peace P
- aendeavouredy to introduce
d if they .
the war party—an legislation some principles of
into
into statesmanship and
they could afford to be sneered at. It
morality— (Laughter)hing
that, though 3,000 years had
was a lamentablet
sculptured marbles were first worked
passed since those
had seen in the British Mt
which so manyiseum, yet at
eengaged, 1,800 years of Christianq
eY
that very mo
and not reluctantly
ere that night son the part of
wmapy, in precisely the same sort of proceedings described We
marbles, where were pictured
those armed men, horses,
chariots, processions, battles, and captains—(Laughter)—
and no doubt there were priests too now, as there were
then, who blessed the arms of the Assyrians, and offered
thanksgivings to the gods for slaughter. He believed the
Bin not to be one which gentlpm
—um connecked with the GO*