The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-25 00:00:00

titt

Sun,

I`~ ^ •i

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 25, 1863.

The speeches delivered yesterday before an im-
mense audience of fully three thousand people down
at Rochdale, by Mr. COBDEN and Mr. BRIGHT, are
to us positively refreshing. In the midst of so much
apathy, silence, indifference, of so little being said
that is really worth listening to, of absolutely
nothing whatever being done that notoriously wants
doing, among our leading politicians—it is in sim-
plest truth nothing less than refreshing to hear or
read the outspoken thoughts, the earnest convic-
tions, the avowal of the bold and clearly-defined
principles of two such men as the member for Roch-
dale and the member for Birmingham. Even when
we least coincide with their views, those views of
theirs are propounded with such a manly precision
and distinctness that even their opponents must
needs listen to their enunciation with a profound
interest and even at times it would not be extrava-
gant to assert, with a sort of irritated admiration.
Indeed the unreserved outsp3aking alluded to may
be pronounced at once, in regard to each of them,
to be pimply constitutional. It has more than
been observable in the course of their
strictlye contemporary careers, careers that have
been running
parallel -with each other, almost unin-
terruptedlyd,,,in,n the last quarter of a century, that
when their sploi
s have been least in accordance
with those of the people, of the Press, and of Parlia-
ment, those opinionshave been if possible more fear-
lessly expressed than
ever alike on the hustings, on
the public platferul,
oud from their favourite seat on
the second bench below
gangway, now on the
side of the Governmentthe
on the side of the
opposition, according to tZ°welns and Outs of Party.
However hopeless their positionB leaders of public
opinion—as in the instance of the Chinese War, or
of the war in the Crimea, ohw.
n r
question of importance, now in regard to
to this
to that—the
have never yet shirked a ditt.enity, nor y
matter is 4, we believe, in any way for that
likely
ginable that they
could by any possibility, under Say
circumstances, do so. There is a certain
of temperament frequently noticeable in` r•tigiZe
it is true, that is not in the least discernable in the
instance of his older and calmer colleagoe.
Whereas the genius of Mr. BRIGHT is that of
an impassioned demagogue, the genius of Mr.
COBDEN is far more luminous and philosophic
in its character, is that at once of a logician and a
Statesman. While Mr. BRIGHT, in his happier
moments and among a congenial multitude, bears
his hearers away with him, so to speak, by the
very impetuosity of his declamation, Mr. COBDEN
often carries unwilling conviction home to the
judgment of an alien audience by the cogency of his
arguments, argamen ts having about them repeatedly
the surprise of wit, no less than the force and clear-
ness of so many epigrammatic syllogisms. Although,
from the peculiar circumstance of
• -
political situation, we might even say of the
rretat,
political stagnation, neither Mr. BRIGHT
nor Mr. COBDEN, could speak otherwise ^
than iiia
for a
very
yesterday
or in remonstrance, they have rot
happier long while been either of them in a
vein than they
were last evening while
clese.inting upon that situation,
that stagnation. while reprobating
Nothing could well have been
more felicitous in tri,
than many of the telling
good-humoured satire
recognisable ir. the longthent,p,olints, the lucky hits
il ;tress of the mem-
ber for Rochdale. Instance this, his
allusions to
the ignorance evidenced, only ton f ul
many of those arrcgAting to
themselves in t among
country the right to criticise the tinetuatic his
ofns the
war, or to anticipate the probable issue of it, in
North American Republic—an ignorance even in
regard to well-ascertained statistics, end in reference
actually to geographical particulars. The scorn.
ful sarcasms of the Member for Birmingham, hew_

' e ver, were, as might almost have been anticipe .ted,
under existing circumstances, more effective than
bis colleague's milder way of putting things,
a lthough Mr. BRIGHT was there not ar song his
o wn, but in the midst of that same c olleague's,
o onstituents. Referring, as he could hardly fail to
i.o upon the occasion of such an opY?ortunity, to
Lord Joirs RUSSELL, as Mr. BRIGHT still persisted,
as if from the mere force of habit, iu c tilling him, the
L on. member adds,thus to one such in ention of " Lord
. I OLIN EUSSELL—now, I am sorry to say, no longer
1 c flown by his old name, but as Earl RUSSELL of the
E'oreign Office!" Referring to the fact that since
lk 830 the wheel has been entirely turned
oound, the 'Whigs being mostly at the top of
1:t, and the Tories mostly at the bottom,
:harming is the naivete with which Mr. BRIGHT
kdds, " Now the Whigs when they are in office are
not precisely the same kind of people as they are
when they are out of office. Their contentment is
3 3methince wonderful. They believe that the Con-
s titution has then attained its highest excellence."
was his description of the excitement
(e3raePaitteadl' ooitnthe region of the Pall-Mall Clubs at the
time of a change in the Administration. " You
::,ave no idea," said he to the eagerly listening elec-
t; ors of Rochdale," of the scene there is in the clubs
i.n London when it is a question of who shall
e omo in. I know what sort of a scene it
is at the Reform Club. There are a great
r many men at the Reform Club who look with in-
t ense interest to the appointment of what they call
e. Liberal Government, and it especially causes
treat excitement amongst expectant lawyers. And
3. believe at the Carlton Club it is very much the
ame; there is just us much excitement; and the
hall of the club is like an exchange or a fair, and
everybody has a rumour." As a matter of course,
the noble earl the Foreign Secretary was
the object of one or two very wholesome
comments in regard to his speech at Blairgowrie,
;and for his unlucky blurting out from under the
shadow of his Earl's coronet, and from within the
cincture of his blue ribbon, the rather selfish senti-
ment of "Rest and be thaukful r' Perhaps the most
noticeable passage in the whole of Mr. COBDEN'S
speech was that in which the negotiator of the
French Treaty—a treaty of which, by the way,
he frankly spoke last evening as " an extraneous
and rather exceptionable proceeding"—remarked in
regard to NAPOLEON'S recent proposition, "I would
not be thought to say one word against the project
of the Emperor of the FRENCH to hold a Congress ;
there is one passage in his address which prevents
my treating it with unqualified opposition or
indifference. For the first time a great poten-
tate, the head of the most military and powerful
nation in Europe, has called a Congress, to
devise, among other measures, the means of
1 reducing those enormons standing armaments
[
which arc the curse and peril of Europe at this
time." In regard not only to the Congress, how-
ever, were the remarks of Mr. COBDEN directed
last evening. Ho and his distinguished colleague
took within their ken, one after another, the prin-
cipal subjects of intereet—some of them of vital
import—to which popular attention is just now
directed in various parts of the habitable globe—in
Europe, Asia, America, even at our antipodes.

Every honest Englishman respects plain speak-
ing; and a man who boldly and consistently stands
by his own opinions is never likely to be the loser
in public estimation, even though the cause which
he advocates or the principles which he upholds
should be on the unpopular side. In accordance
with theory, therefore, Mr. BENTINCRI'S speech at
Taunton may be read with interest, and not alto-
gether NI ith dissent, by what he terms " advanced
Liberals." It is true, that in these days the old
party wall has been broken down, and there is no
longer the old division between Whig and Tory,
but a general advocacy of the same principles and
an attempt to outbid each other on the same
grounds. Mr. BENTINCK, however, accepts no such
compromise, at least in terms. He proclaims him-
self to be "an old Tory." " I have never," he says,
"been ashamed of my principles ; on the contrary,
I have always been very proud of them ;" and ac-
cordingly he proceeds to examine the questions of
the day freely and fearlessly. When we come to
examine his views, however, it appears that Mr.
BENTINCK'S Toryism is not altogether of the old
school, however honourably and consistently he
may have advocated them. It has often been sup•
posed, he tells us, that "a Tory is a monster of
corruption, favouring only reaction, extravagance,
and war;" but his ideas of Toryism are quite
different. On the principle of the saying
that the Evil One ought not to have all
the good tunes to himself, which, by the
way, Mr. BENTINCK does not attribute to its
right author, ho does not see why his opponents
should have all the good cries, and sa he inscribes
on his banner the motto of " Reform, Retrenchment,
and Peace,." It is something for an old Tory to
admit that these are good cries, and it proves that
the;work of reform has really gone on not only in
the policy of the country but in the principles of its
very opponents. Mr. BENTINCK, while on the sub-
ject of Reform, naturally refers to that ingenious
little piece of political sleight of hand which dis-
placed the DERBY Cabinet. The memorable meet-
lag at -Willis's Rooms which decided that Lord
DERBY'S Reform Bill did not go far enough,
apparently fixed the point to be reached at a very
great distance, seeing that no subsequent efforts
have been made to reach it. The remarkable con-
versions of active Reformers into " Rest-and-be-
thankful" Conservatives could not, of course, be
passed over, and accordingly Mr. BENTINCK begs
to point out that these recruits have deserted from
i theirb own ranks—their presence on his side of the
~. is not due to any lowering of his standard.
Ihe recent speeches of some of the chief
--- the so•called Liberal party were
ani
on
the
the member for Taun-
ton, 10,0
re
join
in
Cho marked that they were all ready to
Our foreign
policy with their leader at Blairgowrie.
, heh justly stigmatised as being
strong, and to sacrifice
In instance of these dete t he cited the very diffe-
rentrinc
line of
too apt to threat
weak and to submit to the
piple for popularity.
policy
Pursued
on
the Brazilian and
e d case we seized the
reprisals; in the
other we allow our merchant aip
American questions. In the h
other party's ships and inflicted
to be seized
without adequate or legal reason.
Such is the
difference between the course to be followed towards
the strong and the weak ; but the Country
L
not
disposed to " rest and be thankful coder
any such
policy." The American question, so far as it
re-
gards English vessels, whether on the high seas or
in the docks, is likely to be the Ministerial dim.
cuity of the opening of the session. Groat dissatis-
faction was expressed last year ; but the storm has
been gathering ever since, and the steam rains of
Birkenhead may prove as formidable in a moral
point of view to their assaulters as they are intended
to be in a literal sense. " I do not think it possible,"
said Mr. 13E2;TINcii, "by any act to conciliate the
affection of the Federals. They are strongly pre-
judiced against us, and we must show them that
JionN BULL i 3 not in the least afraid of JONATHAN."
is a pity that such sentiments were not shared
by our Minister
8) whose anziouls courtesy and ready