The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-05 00:00:00

quite understand the meaning and purport. I will show
that it is not so plain spoken as it ought to be; but still it
is intended to put an end to the existence of the present Go-
vernment. And now perhaps the house will pardon me if
I relate an anecdote. There is in a beautiful churchyard in
Kent an epitaph which commemorates a lady and gentle-
man who were murdered by a domestic servant, and the
writer of the epitaph, in his anxiety to give it a pious and
Christian tone, has written that it was a very great advan-
tage to them, after all, to be got rid of by this summary
method of proceeding, as they were freed from the incen-
veniences and discomforts that usually attend dissolution in
the ordinary course. (Loud laughter.) When I read this
it occurred to me that the right hon. gentleman was about
to perform for' the Government the kind office which the
domestic servant performed for the old lady and gentleman.
(Renewed laughter.) But, looked at from another point of
view, the right hon. gentleman has raised a purely per-
sonal matter. We have heard the tone of the right hon,
gentleman to-day. He looked at the noble lord, and spoke
of his miserable incapacity. Again, I find the memory of
the right hon. gentleman a short memory, because by and
e he went on to describe what had been the foreign policy
of this country since the peace of 1815, and he described it
as a successful policy. Did he recollect that the man whom
he accused of miserable incapacity had been the main agent
in conducting that policy for more than half the time which
has elapsed since the peace of 1815 ? (Ministerial cheers.)
What is the meaning of this motion ? It is to get us out
of our places, and to let them come into them. But when
that issue is raised without reference to policy, it is a dis-
agreeable motion for discussion by those who still have
clinging to them any remains of the modesty of their youth.
The right hon. gentleman, however, has no such difficulty.
(Laughter.) He has applied to us the term "miserable
incapacity."
Several Hoer. MEMBERS —He said "intense incapacity."
Mr. DISRAELI—What I said was "utter incapacity."
(Opposition cheers.)
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—WeII,
utter incapacity, intense, or miserable, or whatever it may
be, he at all events challenges a comparison with those who
may succeed them. He says, "By your gross mismanage-
ment you have offended all your allies," (Opposition
cheers, and counter-cheers from the Ministerial benches.)
He seems to think that that is true because we have failed
in averting a war. The right lion. gentleman might have
a little compassion from a recollection of ins own career.
(Laughter.) There was a war when he was a Minister,
which the then Foreign Secretary, Lord Malmesbury, did
net succeed in staving off. On the 18th of April, 1859,
the right hon. gentleman told us that he was well satisfied
there would be no war ; but on the 22d the Austrians
commenced the war. (Ministerial cheers.) I appeal to
the memory of their own transactions as a justification
of what was done in the case of Denmark.
In point of fact, the motion means this : " Let
the noble lord and his colleagues get out of the
way, and let us get in, and then everybody will be
well-behaved, and all will go on smoothly." It reminds
me of the appearance of 2Eneas amongst the shades of the
old Greek heroes, when they began to run away from him :
"At Danaum proceres, A gamemnonicasque phalanges,
Ut videre virum, fulgentiaque arma per umbras,
Ingenti trepidare metu ; paro vertere terga."
(Laughter.) Then the right hon. gentleman gets on the
high horse, and refuses to give us the slightest idea of his
policy, beaause that, he says, would be accepting office on
conditions. (Cheers.) He has contrived a motion which is
full of animosity and poison towards the life of the G )vern-
ment ; but look at it as a declaration bearing on the public
policy, and it is pale and colourless as a ghost. The chief
allegation is that the just influence of England has been
lowered. Now let me deal with that. In the first place I
deny it; and in the second place I hold that, if it were, it is
not a seemly declaration to be recorded by Parliament.
(Loud Ministerial cheers.) Why is the just influence of
England said to have been lowered ? Is it because we have
failed in averting war ? It there has been a failure there
have also been honest, upright, generous efforts made to
prevent great masses of mankind from injuring and destroy-
ing one another. (Cheers.) Ministers who in vain endea-
your to calm troubled waters may at the time reap no other
reward than in resentment and disapprobation; but yet the
recollection will abide that the voice of England was raised
for moderation and justice. (Cheers.) The effort of the Go-
vernment was to teach wisdom to those who were obstinate,
and mercy to those who were tyrannous and strong. It is
said that this case is without parallel, Let me, however, go
back to the case of Mr Canning. Never was there a more
conspicuous failure, so far as the judgment of the moment
was concerned, than that of Mr Canning in the case of the
invasion of Spain by France, but there is no more honour-
able chapter in the whole history of the foreign policy of
England. (Ministerial cheers.) Let us therefore look a little
beyond the present moment, and let us discard if we
can the Epicurean temper which is so strong in its
vision of those things which lie near, but is blind as
a bat to everything that pertains to the future.
I repeat that I do not believe the just influence of this coun-
try has been lowered. (Cheers.) By whom is that Lan-
guage held ? Why, by a certain portion of the foreign
cress ; and when I read the motion of the right hon. gen-
tleman, it seems to me to be an echo, and nothing better
than an echo, of the almost ribald language of a few obscure
journals on the continent. (Ministerial cheers.) It is from
them that this intending Minister draws his inspiration; it
is from that quarter that the lessons of English policy are
to be learned. I have denied that the just influence of Eng
land has been lost, and, as far as my knowledge goes, this
is the first occasion on which the British House
of Commons has been called upon to record, for
the purpose of displacing a Government, the degradation
of their country. (Loud cheers.) Why cannot the right
hon. gentleman speak plainly ? Why cannot he adopt the
language used by our forefathers on these occasions, and
move an address to the Crown that the Government did not
deserve the confidence of the house ? The right hon. gen-
tleman was afraid to raise that issue. He did not dare even
now to resort to the old and constitutional form of a vote of
want of confidence. And because he was not bold he
thought he was wise. (Laughter.) All I can say is that
the right hon. gentleman has never so poisoned the mines
of any combination of gentlemen in this house as to induce
them to place on record that which must be regarded as dis-
honourable to their country. Go back to the times of Sir
Robert Walpole, of Lord North, and of Mr. Fox, and
never will 'you find a sterile, jejune affair like this proposed
to the House of Commons. Whatever was then raised by
the Opposition was spoken outright in the good old Eng-
lish manner. (Cheers.) I think I have now detained
the house long enough. I have endeavoured to avoid lead-
ing them into the almost innumerable phases of this long
correspondence, and I have followed the right hon. gentle-
man on every point he chose to submit. And Ido not know
that there is any portion of it which he might have com-
mented upon, where it would not have been equally
practicable to follow him. Whatever may be his argu-
ments, I aria confident that the house will not be led
astray by the motion. Let him, if he pleases, shelter
himself under the irresponsibility of Opposition; but that
doctrine will not bear being pushed to extremes, and never
has it been pushed to such an extreme as it has been to-
night by the right hon. gentleman. In vain does the right
hon. gentleman say, " You must place me on that bench,
and then let me tell you what I propose to do." Ido not
think the country will consent to a change on these condi-
tions. Nay, more, I feel the most confident conviction that
the house and the country will approve of the course taken
in these difficult negotiations by her Majesty's Govern-
ment I and that the house will reject a motion which both
prudence and patriotism emphatically reject. (The right
hon. gentleman was loudly cheered as he resumed his seat.)
Mr NE WDEGATE moved, by way of amendment; to
substitute for the second paragraph in Mr Disraeli's motion
the following words :—" To submit to her Majesty the opi-
nion of this house, that the independence of Denmark and
the possessions of that kingdom, on the terms proposed by
the representatives of the neutral Powers in the recent
Conference, ought to be guaranteed," He was not prepared
to admit that this country stood degraded before the world,
although there would be no doubt that, by the confession
of the Government, she was isolated from her allies on the
question of Denmark. Ho moved his amendment to the
resolution, because the right hon. gentleman had disavowed
on his own part any intention, had he been in office, of in-
terfering in defence of the Danish monarchy; and if that
would have been the right hon, gentleman's policy the house
was right in continuing its confidence to her Majesty's Go-
vernment. He by no means intended to advocate war; and
the object of his amendment was that the house should de-
clare its readiness to co-operate with our allies before the
evils ensued which Lord Palmerston recently foreshadowed,
the bombardment of Copenhagen and the capture of the
King, events which seemed to be not far distant, judging
by the violent conduct of the German Powers.

The amendment having been seconded by Mr. GORE.
LANGTON,

Mr. KINGLAKE objected to the amendment, that inas-
much as the disputed territory north of the Schlei was now
in possession of the German forces, to propose to guarantee
that territory was simply to propose war, and create a lia.
bility to war to all time. In the decieon at which the
Government had arrived he entirely concurred ; and with
regard to the house he contended that there had been a long
acquiescence on its part in the foreign policy of the Q.
vernment up to the very period at which Mr. Disraeli hp-'
given notice of his motion.

General PEEL, whilst disclaiming all
127 party considers-
:Ort to
tions, gave his moat cordial su
' the motion. The
.`acs they throw over the Reform
Ministry, he said, ever
Bill upon their foreign policy and the
, soh,iy
popularityhad of existed
the Premier ; but the only result was that
the Foreign Secrotary had ended everybOdy, and shown
that he had one policy for the weak and another for the
strong. The J'rinse Minister had stigmatis2d the invasion
of Jutland as an outrage upon the independence of Den-
mark. There was a time when a declaration like that
would have been looked upon by all foreign Powers as bind-
ing as if it had bsen delivered by the most despotic
monarch. This war of words was neither safe nor honour-
able. If the policy of the country was to be peace at uny
price, silence and non-interference would have become us
better. Uwe wepa too rich to be drawn into war by any
amount of Provocation, it would be best to say so at once;
but what would be said of a man who declined to defend
his honour because ne was too rich to be shot at ? If thip, were the language held by England we should indeed de-
VO t 9 be called a Atttion, of shopkeepers; but the 0149 p.