The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-02 00:00:00

Mr, Cardwell, M.P., at Oxford,

OXFORD, Jan. 1.
The annual dinner of the Ancient Order of Druids al
Oxford, took place this evening in the Town-hall, and it

being the occasion on which the members for the city of
Oxford address their constituents, the hall was as usual

densely crowded. Both Mr. Cardwell and Mr. Neate, the
recently-elected member, were most cordially received by
their constituents. The chair on the present occasion was
occupied by the Arch Druid, Mr. Brunner, and among the

company we observed the Mayor of Oxford (Mr. Carr),

Aldermen Ward, Randell, Towle, Thompson, the ex• Mayor
the Right Hon. Mr. Cardwell, M.P., Mr. Neate, M.P.
Colonel Fane, M.P., Captain Mellon, Captain Fane, Mr:

Sheriff Watson, Mr. Clay, Mr, Pike, Mr. E. T. Spiers, Mr,
Ilusse;', Mr. Saunders, &c.
The usual loyal and patriotic toasts having been given.
and cordially responded to,

The CHAIRMAN proposed the health of the City mem-
bers, which was received with loud cheers.
The Right Hon. E, W. CARDWELL on rising was re-
ceived with renewed cheering. After some preliminary re-
marks—in the course of which he alluded in feeling terms
to the death which had taken place since he had last ad-

dressd them, of his late colleague, Mr. Langton, and to the
more recent death of Mr. Thackeray—he expressed the
pleasure he should have in working with a common purpose
with his newly. elected colleague, Mr. Neate. He then con-
tinued :—The most remarkable feature of the year which
has just passed is thegreat and happy contrast which under
the blessings of Divine Providence in our tranquil, steady
and continuous progress in prosperity, this kingdom has
presented to the signal sorrows which have ben experienced
in some foreign countries, and the great anxiety and alarm
which have been prevalent throughout the whole of Europe.
So far as our pecuniary prosperity is concerned, I for one
own that it has exceeded altogether any anticipations that
I had previously entertained. It certainly appeared to me,
and I have no hesitat:on in acknowledging it, that it was
impossible for that great convulsion which has shaken
the United States of America to the centre to have taken
place without producing more disastrous effects to this
country than those which we have actually experienced,
But, gentlemen, probably in the very circumstances from
which we anticipated, and indeed have experienced such
great trials, we may trace at least a part of the causes of our
comparative prosperity. At the beginning of a great war,
when the expenses are met by means of borrowed money,

_ •
and by that most seductive form of borrowing money, the
issue of paper money not corresponded to by actual gold—
in the commencement of a great war there is always a large

expen, 4iture7 not only on military objects, but also on those
articles which are luxuries even in times of peace, and I
have no doubt whatever that A great part of the American
expenditure has contributed to maintain the trade and corn •

merce of this kingdom. Then again there is little question
that we owe a great deal to the increasing intercourse be-
tween this country and Franee, an intercourse which has
not only been beneficial to us in itself, but which is highly
to be cherished as giving mutual securities between two
great nations for the maintenance of peace, (Cheers.) But
after all, the great cause probably why we have suffered
less than we expected to sutler is to be found in that cm-
tinuous expansion which the energy of the English people
has al ways found for the broad deep stream of British in-
dustry and commer-e, Let us be thankful to the Giver of
all Good for the benefits which we have enjoyed, and let us
endeavour to prove ourselves worthy of them in future
years. With regard to foreign countries, the great question
of interest to us must ever be until happily it shall be closed,
that wonderful, that sorrowful chapter of history which we
are reading in the condition of the United States of America,
an epoch which will probably have as great an effect in
that country as the civil wars ending in the great revolution
had in our own, or as the first great revolutionary struggle
had in France. To this country it has been particularly
interesting during the year that has passed, for it has
brought into action in this country a principle of law
of the utmost importance to England, the greatest
maritime county of the world—a principle which
will survive the war in America, and will remain to guide
the destinies of nations long after those who are contem-
porary with it shall have gone to their rest. I refer to the
question now under discussion in our courts with regard to
the rights of belligerents and neutrals at sea. Seventy years
have just elapsed since we begun our struggle with n- vo:u-
tionary France, and the minister who represented France
in the United States of America then endeavoured to make
the harbours of the United States a focus for expeditions by
sea against the commerce and the possessions of England.
The remonstrances of England were acknowledged in Ame-
rica, and the complaints of Mr Pitt and Lord Grenville being
received by Washington and Jefferson, the result was the
enactment in America of that law which now under altered
circumstances, they being the belligerents and we neutrals,
is the principal subject of discussion in this kingdom. The
ability with which the matter has been discussed upon both
sides has been remarkable, and we now wait patiently for
the decision of our tribunals. But of this there will be no
doubt in this or any other assembly, namely, that with the
same measure with which we expected they should mete to
us with that same measure, now that the circumstances are
reversed, it is our duty to mete to them. The one principle
by which you are to be guided is that, fearless to menace,
uninfluenced by favour, we shall give to the principle of
strict neutrality full and impartial effect, and carry out to
utmost of our power that principle of international law to
which we in our own time of danger and necessity ourselves
appealed. (Cheers.) I wish most heartily that I could give
you a more satisfactory account in regard to what has
passed in respect to the unhappy kingdom of Poland. I
wish I could have told that when the wrongs of Poland ex-
cited the sympathy of Europe, and when Austria, France,
and England thought proper to remonstrate, their remon-
strances had been effectual for the end which they had in
view. But I can give you no such assurance, and I deeply
re7ret that the consequences should have been those
which are familiar to your knowledge. MI that I shall
say upon that subject is that there were only two other
courses which England could have pursued. One was to
have preserved absolute silence, which, under the cir-
cumstances of the case, might have been interpreted into
giving its assent to the course which was being pursued in
Poland; and the other was that Austria, France, and Eng-
land should, by openly raising war against Russia and the
allies of Russia, have opened again those floodgates of a
general European war which were closed some 50 years ago
of which few of us of have seen the desolation and misery it
entailed, but which are yet green in the memory of Europe,
for there are probably many of its provinces that have not
attained to that prosperity and progress which they would
have otherwise enjoyed. You have looked with great interest
to the proposals which have been made by the Emperor of
the French for a general European Congress, and I believe
I speak the sentiarents of every man in this room, and I am
sure that I speak my own, when I say that I yield to no malt
in the most earnest desire for the cordial union at all times
between the policy of England and of France, for I hold
that the cordial union of England and France is ono of the
greatest safeguards for the peace of Europe, which I value
beyond all things. (Cheers.) I sympathise cordially wall all
the motives by which the congress was recommended to the
consideration of England, but on those very grounds, viz.,
difference of view, I think the people of England generally
agree that it was right on our part to refuse to join in it.
They rightly thought the hazard was too great to be en-
countered, and that such a congress, with the most earnes
desire for peace, would have produced a totally coutrary and

pposite result. We could have no self interest in view;
England desires no aggrandisement ; she has nothing to
seek ; and in the case of the lonian Islands, she has shown
the very year that has passed twat, if there be anything
which she possesses, that she believes it for the interest of
those who are chiefly concerned, and for the welfare of the
country, that she should surrender, she is prepared at once
to surrender it, not at the suggestion of any number of per-
sons, but by her own free will, and from her own sponta-
neous feeling. (Cheers.) In another quarter clouds have
arisen, which threaten the maintenance of peace between
two nations with which we have been upon every account
on terms of the closest and most intimate relationship.
From the Danes and from the Germans we draw our blood.
I sincerely trust that as Germany hitherto has been consi-
dered, with justice, the most pacific of all European powers,
as the great centre of tranquillity and peace in Europe, so
by the wisdom and moderation of its councils, this great
danger might be averted, and peace be happily preserved.
In this case, at any rate, the appeal of England is to treaty.
Treating of the statute law of Europe, it is the title deeds
of monarchs and the charter which guarantees the rights of
nations. (t_leers.) I sincerely trust that by wisdom, by
firmness, and by moderation on both sides, that peace
which we all so earnestly and cordially desire may still be
preserved. As 1 have said, to us the year has been one of
great and solemn thankfulness, and the revenue returns
which have been published this morning show how pros.
perous upon the whole has been our condition, and how
buoyant has been our revenue. By the legislation of the
past year every duty which impeded foreign trade has been
romoved, every duty upon domestic manufactures which
tends to prohibit the use of articles in the promotion of
manufactures has been remitted, and in the course of the
year which has just expired Parliament felt itself at liberty
to remove a portion both of your direct and indirect taxa-
tion, to relieve a portion of the burdens upon property, and
also of the burdens upon consumers in regard to those
articles which form the humtle luxuries of the poor. How
far those remissions of taxation can be further carried will
depend upon two considerations, one of which is to what
amount the expansive trade and industry of the country
will contribute to pour into the treasury an increased re-
venue, and the other is the state of our foreign relations,
and how far they will permit us, with a due regard to the
safety and honour of the country, to put a restriction on the
expenditure necessary for the military defence of the na-
tion. It was General Washington who, in founding the
republic of America, gave b:rth to the wise maxim that the
people of that country should avoid all the quarrels of Eu-
rope, enlarge their commerce, and study to be at peace and
amity with the whole world. It never can be our case that
we can avoid the questions that agitate Europe, but I sin-

cerely hope that under all parties and all governments we
shall observe this rule with respect to other countries as
far as we can, and with a proper spirit of moderation and
firmness, I do not doubt that we can secure to ourselves the
blessings of peace.
Mr. NEATE also addressed the meeting, observing that as
yet ho was untried in Parliament, but his satisfaction at
being their representative was considerably enhanced by his
having the right hon. gentleman who had just sat down for
a colleague ; and though he could not say that he should
always follow his ad vice,he should certainly resort to him for

it in times of doubt and difficulty. He (Mr. Neate) could
not but think that it would have been better and more dig-
nified on the part of the Government if it had maintained
absolute silence on the Polish question, considering the
position in which it had been placed. He thought that the
Government were right in having nothing to do with the
congres. lie, like other Englishmen, was not averse to
seeing a fair stand up fight, and they had lately had a con •
flict between the great champion of the press and he might
say the great champion of freedom of opinion, or what some
might call the champion of democracy—he referred to Mr.
Cobden. When a man had done good service to the coun-
try he must protest against the unfairness with which he
had been treated by the great organ of the press. He should
not have said this if others had not shown themselves re-
luctant, and had shrunk from coming forward in his cause,
and he must confess that he felt disappointed when he saw
that at a great gathering in Lancashire the other day no
voice had been raised by the Lancashire and Yorkshire gen-
tlemen, for whom I\l r. Cobden had done so much, in his
favour. He should have thought that voices would have
been found to speak in favour both of Mr. Bright and Mr.
Cobden, in a district which they had so much benefited.
(Hear, hear•) He was one of those who thought that the
present law of the settlement of landed property ought
to be amended, and that the agglomeration of the landed
property into the hands of a few individuals was not only an
inconvenience, but might one day become a danger.
The health of Colonel Fane, M.P., in connection with
the connty magistracy, was also drunk, and having been
briefly responded to by the gallant colonel, various other
toasts of a local character were drank, and the proceedings
did not terminate till a late hour.