The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-30 00:00:00

such a point which could influence the opinion of the
House. He could say the Government had given this sub-
ject the most painful investigation, that they had consulted
the highest military authorities, that they had weighed all
the evidence before them with the utmost attention they
could command, and that the result of their inquiries was,
that they had arrived at a different conclusion from the
Right Hon. Gentleman.-( Hear, hear.) In case this measure
should be adopted by Parliamhnt, of•course the future must
determine which had formed the correct judgment, but he
begged the Right Hon. Gentleman to understand that there
was, upon the put of the Government, a conviction that
voluntary enlistment might be appealed to in raising a mi-
litia with great and even complete success- (Hear, hear).-
and this was a measure which he agreed with the Right
Hon. Gentleman the future alone could decide. With these
few observations he would again express the hope which be
had already ventured to express, that notwithstanding some-
what of fiery addresses from some Hon. Gentlemen opposite,
the House would see that it would be the fairest and most
friendly course, in the present position of the question, to
allow the Bill to be brought in. There would be many op-
portunities when it could be most amply discussed hereafter,
and they must all feel that no general discussion could be
satisfactory until they had the provisions of the Bill before
them. He trusted, therefore, that no division would take
place at the present stage.
Mr. BRIGHT thought that the appeal which they had
just heard from the Right Hon. Gentleman was somewhat
singular, seeing that the Right Hon. Gentleman sat where
he did through a violation of the very rule which he wished
them now to observe; but really, after a fortnight upon the
benches opposite, Hon. Gentlemen acquired a gravity of
face which enabled them to ask anything from the other
side of the House.-(Hear, hear.) The order of the House,
also, to which the Right Hon. Gentleman had so pathetically I
referred, had passed before the Right [ion. Gentleman
enlisted under the banners of the vindictive Noble Lord who
sat below the gangway.-(" Oh, oh," and laughter.) He
hoped, now that the Noble Lord the Member for Tiverton
had played tit for tat with the Noble Lord the Member for
London, that they should hear no more of the differences
between thens.-(Heari hear.) The Right Hon. Gen-
tleman stated that his • Hon. Friend the Member for
the West Riding had argued against any defence whatever,
on the assumption that the time had arrived when no such
defence was necessary ; but that was not a correct repre-
sentation of the case, for his Hon. Friend did not lose sight
of the fact, that at this moment they were voting for that
very defence three times the sum which the General Go-
vernment of the United States required for its military
purposes, and for the whole services of its general govern-
ment, and that they were voting 15,000,0001. annually for
the very purposes which the Right Hon. Gentleman took
upon him coolly to suppose they were altogether neglecting.
-(Hear, hear.) The Right Hon. Gentleman had spoken of
the responsibility he felt with reference to this measure as a
member of the Government. He could only say that the
Government had no responsibility whatever upon the sub-
ject, provided the opinion of the country were adverse to the
proposition.-(Oh, oh.) He would not argue the case, be-
cause he took it for granted that a representative Govern-
ment was not bound to raise taxes and establish new sys-
tems of defence, if the public were opposed to it ; and there
-was another kind of protection which they were going to
abandon upon that very ground.-(hear.) He would not
refer to the military part of the case, lest he should rouse
some belligerent major or pugnacious admiral, but he asked,
if we had been now 37 years without a militia force, if no
evil had resulted from the abandonment of the Bill of 1848,
and if this measure were not the result of panic, that they
should postpone it for some little time longer, in order to
take the opinion of the country upon it. The first cost of this
force was estimated at 400,0001., but when the arms were in-
cluded he took it for granted that the question was, whether
they should involve themselves in an expenditure of at least
1,500,0001. in the next five years. To come to the working
of the measure. Of course they will find it much more
easy to raise volunteers where work was scarce and wages
ranged at from Is. to is. 6d. a-day, as in the south-western
counties, than in Lancashire or Yorkshire, where work was
abundant, and the wages averaged from 2s. 6d. to ss. He
assumed that in these latter districts the voluntary system
would fail, and that recourse must be had to the ballot.
Did the Right Hon. Gentleman know the system on which
capital and labour were connected there? Let the Hon.
Gentlemen enter a woollen or cotton manufactory, where
there were some hundreds or might be a thousand persons
employed, and he would see the raw material going on
through a succession of processes, and being worked up in
machinery of the most costly haracter until the whole
manufacture was completed. The employment in all
those mills was by a succession of links. The
chain of industry was of a most ingenious and
wonderfully arranged character. It was the most
important and most productive industry in the
country ; but the Right Hon. Gentleman proposed to take ,
by ballot the men between the ages of 18 and 35 who were
engaged in those delicate, difficult, and skilled operations.
He should like to know how the Right Hon. Gentleman's
project would work in those manufactories; because that was
a question which they would have to meet, and from the
difficulties of which they would find it impossible to escape.-
(Hear, hear.) It was all very well for the Government to I
take an airing on the British lion, as was said of the Noble
Lord the Member for Tiverton, the other night-(Laughter)
-but when they came to work the question, and when the
balloting system was put in operation, they,would find that
it was not the great capitalist alone, but the workmen whom
they were about to withdraw from their regular and well-
paid industry who would be the steady and implacable ene-
mies to the measure now proposed. And it was not merely
because they would take away men from their work who
were earning 3s. or 4s. per day, and subject them to the
evil 'influences of the militia drill, that this opposition
would be excited. It was because it would break
a link in the chain of which he had spoken, and would con-
sequently do twenty times the mischief that it would do if
unskilled and agricultural labourers merely were taken away
from the employment in which they were engaged. lie
entreated the Government to examine this argument before
bringing in their measure, and see whether they did not
thiiik it entitled to some weight. There was ,only one ob-
servation he was desirous of making with regard to the
general principle. He was afraid that by the establish-
ment of a militia system and bringing 80,000 men through a
military training as proposed, they would be laying the foun-
dation of two great evils in this country. One was, that in
times of great suffering and political discontent the people
would be taught to refer to conflicts in the street for a re-
medy to political grievances, rather than to debates and di-
visions in that House.-( Hear, hear.) The other was, that
in consequence of the military spirit thus cultivated, the
people would gradually be led to the toleration of great
armies ; and great armies, as they all knew, were of all in-
stitutions those which were most hostile to the security
and permanent freedom of nations.-(Hear, hear.)
He begged, in conclusion, to put to the Chancellor
of the Exchequer-seeing that, as the Government them-
selves had confessed, there was no urgency with respect to
the Bill-seeing, as he (Mr. Bright) had shown, that it
would interfere materially with the industry of a large class
of the people-seeing that it would cause a great additional
taxation, and lay the foundation of something new in this
country, at least in modern times-whether he ought not to
postpone the measure until the meeting of the next Parlia-
ment, when the opinion of the country would be ascertained
respecting it.- (Hear, hear.) There was an admirable pre-
cedent for this in the conduct of the Government with re-
ference to the question of protection. He confessed he did
not anticipate that if he should have the honour of being re-
turned again to that House, there would be any change in
his views on this subject; because he felt that he was backed
in his opposition to it by the universal opinion of the consti-
tuency which he represented. He had also heard that at
Sheffield a petition against the measure had been signed by
2,500 electors out of 4,000, the highest number which had
ever polled in that borough. Surely the Government would
not proceed with the measure in the face of a remonstrance
so important.-(Hear, hear.)
Mr. WHITESIDE had had R 0 intention of addressing the
House, but some opinions which had been expressed by the
Hon. Gentleman who had just sat down induced him to
trespass for a few moments on the attention of the House.
The Hon. Gentleman had talked of the gravity with which
the Chancellor of the Exchequer had asked him and those
who thought with him to permit the Bill to be introduced
to the House; and perhaps the Right Hon. Gentleman had
erred in expecting that the Hon. Gentleman, who was so
sensitive with respect to a " pugnacious i t miral, and bel-
ligerent major-generals"-(Hear, hear) -would exercise so
much forbearance as to permit a measure the principle of
which had been approved by the House, to be laid on the
table.-(Hear, hear.) The Hon. Gentleman had also se-
verely censured the conduct of the Noble Lord the Member
for Tiverton; but he was hardly so charitable as might
have been expected of him with regard to the motives which
actuated public men in the course they took on great and
important questions. Notwithstanding, however, the
weight of the Hon. Gentleman's censure-and he admitted
that the censure must be estimated by its weight and
the height from which it fell-(Hear, hear)-he (Mr.
Whiteside) was still of opinion that the public would have
little difficulty in deciding whether the Noble Lord, in the
course he had taken on this question, had been actuated by
unworthy motives or by a patriotic desire to serve the best
interests of his country.-(Hear.) The Hon. Gentleman had
urged them to leave the question of a militia to the decision
of the hustings. Was this the Constitution of England ?-
( Hear, hear.) Was every question to be submitted to the
hustings?-(Hear, hear.) Were Members of that House
mere delegates, bound to act according to the instructions of
their constituents? or were they to give their constituents
the benefit of their judgment, their knowledge, their reason,
and their experience upon the questions which were sub-
mitted to them ?-(Hear, hear.) The Hon Gentleman had
said he would not argue the question with them, and he musts
do him the justice to say that he had not argued the ques-
tion.-(A laugh.) Whenever the Hon. Gentleman spoke on
questions connected with the manufacturers he always
listened to him with interest, because he was sure thohitdeeesrwidiveae
instruction and profit from him ; but he must frankly saes)
ramrelayllagctogarulokalleis intellect
ndtepo-n( w
acquainted.-(Hear.)
questionsea ras ) n o
Het
with
apparent riwre.hni when the
H. that the same
ask the lion. Member for the West Riding-
nliwoiostnhp'eaGreinct
otui
for whom he entertained a strong personal
who, he admitted, was entitled to kthe respect respect, and
t of
Member of the House on account of the co
whetherhis ownw greathen
hability-he ap ee :a the
nstii!eve re-
presentedrHon. and
Memberpeace on earth established, he really belieovfesdiethingatutaiheversaPre:
sent condition of the world afforded any evidence of the near approfch of that happy state of things aDid be really sr
rational liberty
umphant ?-(Hmea"rr.virt
ht be did not. And
when the Holt. Member talked
making progress,
rather
tahnodu-g virtue: and justice tri-
umphant
the
French Government to disband of their
their if h would
their ships, he wished to Membere
ask the Ha' that embassy.-
undertake to be the on
which this mea n. Member,
ambassador
(Laughter.) An no had spoken of that danger
and get rid of
sure was intend
finitesilnal ; but with t grea. sce
-pea or against as in-
;lance of a danger was
..
to be
he begged to say that the unPe
• ea that Hon. Member
he
of the assailing
estimated not so much by the grea •
of the object threatened.
force as by the inestimable ' soralcahred
t jone of importance to pro-
curity of the empire. small danger, if it were only for the
Now, in the present case, tbiasacVect threatened was the se-
this even from a h
happiness and just for the preservation
a wise economy tl elf
eententmeneTtwwhahticwasit would secure. It was
Peegand to France, he rejoiced to hear
of the people.
ot danger to be apprehended from that
that there
country
ssu overof that country were to be wielded by
andelrrasnt circumstances.supposing the
vast militees
hand, OIL there be no danger then to this kingdom ?
That 'awr would in itself furnish just ground of caution.
sus'. object all government was to give protection to all
The oes--
classes of persons, in the kingdom, and this measure was to
afford that protection.
Mr. ROEBUCK understood that the object of the Govern-
ment at present was to introduce a Bill upon the subject of
the militia. He was himself extremely anxious that that
should be done, for the reasons which had been given by
the Hon. Member for Manchester. He believed that it was
not desirable that there should be any division on the
,subject at present, but that the Bill should be laid on the
table, with the understanding that the Government should
go to the country upon the Bill-(Hear, hear.) He could
understand that it was not the wish of the present Govern-
ment to go to the country upon one isolated measure, but
that they should propound what was the general tone and
tenour of their policy. Now, he considered the present clues-