The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-15 00:00:00

MR. F. FEEL AT BURY.

The Right Hon, F. reel, M.P. (one of the Under •Secre-
taxies of the Treasury), met his constituents at Bury, Lan-
cashire, on -Wednesday eveniug. Tho lower room of Barn-
brook-mill had been prepared for his reception, and an audi-
ence estimated at from 3,C00 to 4,000 assembled. Mr. Ueo,

Whitehead presided.
Mr. PEEL, who was much cheered, said that among the
anniversaries to which he looked forward with pitasuro he

counted that which brought him before his constituents to
account to them for the manner in which he had performed

his duties as their representative, and, as it were, to strike
a balance in the account between them; and far frcm that
pleasure palling him by repeated use, he found it as freak
and as treat as at the first, th-,nlr.s to the cordial greeting
he always received and -the kindly feeling ivhcb they in-
variably manifested towards him. Ho welcomed Och cue •
cessive meeting as affording another link in that leaicthell.
big chain which bound them together so firmly and yet so
freely; and he looked upon those meetings as a safeguard for
_ _ _

his o•a•n faithful service, because they reminded him of his

responsibility to them; and he knew that a sense of respon-
sibility to one's constituency was not less necessary to make
a member of Parliament a good member than was a sense

of responsibility to the elected representatives of the nation
themselves necessary to make the Government of this
country a good Government. These annual audits appeared
to him to combine many of the advantages of annual elec-
tions, with freedom from their disadvantages, because they
imparted that popular impulse, they gave that fresh sense
of responsibility, under whch a member newly elected
might be supposed to act, 'without foregoin:e those advan-
tages which might be presumed to be derived from the
services of members of Parlitment ~'ho had the experience
of several sessions to guide them. It had been said that the
Parliamentary duties of mene'iers had not been so onerous of
late as they formerly were ; that the last session, like the pre-
ceding one,, had not been prcductive of any striking legisla-
tive results, (Hear.) He thought, however,that some measures
were passed which, thouyt not ushered in by any flourish of
trumpets, were calculated t; produce the most beneficial re-
sults. But admitting the statement to be tine generally,
the fact was easily to be accounted for, inasmuch as be the
prevailing temper of the public men the questions of the
day had not afforded a faeenrable field for the realisation ot
such legislative results as he had referred to. These were
times when the question;of most particular interest con-
cerned the foreign rel
ague; of this country—the equilibrium
not of classes at home, bat of independent Powers abroad—
times when, perhaps, themaintenanee of peace—the greatest
blessing which a countr7 could have—might depend upon
the issue of negotiation; that were pending—times when
what this country principally desired was that her itefluence
should be used in the cause of moderation and conciliation
abroad, and when the face of that public opinion, of which
she is the representative, should be brought to bear for ac-
complishing those ends; and times when, in order that pub-
lic opinion should have its due weight, it was essential that
the mind of the country should be as the mind of one man,
and that no questions should arise to divide or weaken her
counsels. (Applause,)
It was clear that the mind of the
country had been beat apon what was passing outside, and
he must confess that
When we reflected that the tempest
was still raging in America with undiminished fury; when
we marked that war seemed on the point of breaking out in
the north of Germany; when we observed how the horizon
abroad was everywhere clouded and overcast—we could not
be too thankful at our immunity from those complications in
which foreign countries were involved. We could not be
too thankful,
seeing how elsewhere the atmosphere was
overclouded, for the sunshine we ourselves were enjoying,
even though there might be spots in the sun and shadows
beneath it, which it would be politic at the first opportunity
to remove. (Cheers.) In any political speech, under existing
circumstances, the leading topic must necessarily be the
American question, (Hear, hear.) The war had now lasted
three years,
and we saw that as yet the north had not been
able to overcome the resistance of the South. The North
was like the Roman Consul who would not despair of the
Republic in its adversity. The North did not despair of the
Union, and was straining every nerve in its cause. The
South had broken from that Union ; would not hear of it
again ; disbelieved in the possibility of its reconstruction ;
disbelieved that the Union could again exist in its former
sense of a brotherhood of States ; believed, therefore, that
union fur it mast mean subjugation, and so strained on its
side—and if possible to a higher degree of tension—every
nerve for the purpose of accomplising its independence. To
a bystander he thought it would appear that that dreadful
war must have created a gulf between the Northern and the
Southern people more impassable than the widest seas or the
loftiest mountain barriers by which nature ever separated
one people from another—(hear)—and that, therefore, the
alternative ot that war must be subjugation or separation.
discovered, had
He remembered meeting in an old writer with the expres
seen "the America of truth," What he meant by that ex-
pression was the undiscovered parts of truth, because he
not he so startling
wrote. some 300 years ago, at a time when America, though
forcible enough, But he (Mr. Peel) thought there could be
of this war to nut been explored, and the expression ws
no doubt that if there were an America of fiction it would
a, the America of truth, not of 300 years
ago, but of the present day. Look only now at the burden
Tula) the question'
one side—the North. We had had authentic
information on that eubject placed before us in Messages
presented to Congress lately, statements of which, to use an
f' liability" could not be disputed.
American phrase the -e •
years the war had lasted it was costing the Central Govern-
of CliPell,X. It appeared that the three
ment of the North at the rate of £150,000,000 a-year. It ay-
pense they were not able to raise
peered that of that annual ex
byte anon more than
L 25,000,000 a -year, consequently the
remaining £125,000,000 had to be obtained by borrowing;
411(t ALA they had up to the present ties: found uo thilwu y