The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 14, 1863

Sir C. Wood and Mr. Stansfeld at Halifax.

HALIFAX, TUESDAY EVENING.

Sir C. Wood addressed a crowded meeting of his
constituents at the Odd Fellows' Hall in this town.
(Mr.o rossley) occupied the
chair,The and
o rof Halifax
opened
the senior member to address the meeting.
Sir C. WOOD commenced by observing that it was
now 30 years since he first represented Halifax—a
longer period than most members had sat for any
borough, and certainly longer than any minister
had represented one particular constituency. Since
the end of last session many questions had arisen on
which there had sprung up differences of opinion,
and he was only happy to take this opportunity of
explaining some part of his conduct, which had been
censured, as far as regarded his own department, and
to which recent circumstances had given an unusual
interest. It was only last June that he had in his
place in Parliament fully explained his views with
respect to the Government of India, and nothing had
occurred since to entertain any doubt that the policy
he had adopted was doubtful or injurious. Blame had
been imputed to him in no measured terms with re-
spect to Indian affairs, and he complained that state-
ments should have been made in the public papers,
which he had had no opportunity of answering, but
were not worthy of credit. Before he entered on the
question of India he wished to say a word upon the
general conduct of the Government. He admitted
that this Government had not carried a Reform
Bill, but the fact had been that the country had
been so occupied with other subjects, and particu-
larly with foreign affairs, that the warmest advo-
cates for Reform must admit that the general in-
difference manifested in the country evinced that
the present was not the time when it was advisable
to bring that question forward. He pointed, how-
ever, to the fact that measures of great importance
to the interests of the country had been passed by
Parliament, which had rendered great service in
improving the Tariff. The whole nation, but par-
ticularly the West Riding, had been largely bene-
fited by the opening of new markets, in conse-
quence of the Commercial Treaty with France,
which had compensated in a degree for the closing
of the cotton market, which had produced so much
misery in Lancashire, but which misery would have
been greatly augmented if there had been no such
compensation. It was most satisfactory to find that
although the excise revenue had fallen off in conse-
quence of the diminished consumption arising from
diminished wages, yet that the produce of the
Customs, stamps, post-office, and other departments
connected with the general trade of the country,
had been as progressive as in pet years, which he
attributed to the enlightened policy in commer-
cial matters which had distinguished every suc-
ceeding Government within the last twenty
years. With respect to the increased expendi-
ture upon our national defences he was convinced
that it was forced upon the country by the succes-
sive improvements in shipbuilding, which had ren-
dered it necessary to adopt the armour-plated ves-
sels, the cost of the smallest of which was greater
than the largest of our old men-of-war. The foreign
policy of the Government had met with the almost
unanimous approbation of the country, and it might
be described as a policy of non-intervention and the
preservation of the peace. They had sympathised
with all nations that were struggling for indepen-
dence and self-government. Their sympathies had
been given to the Italians, struggling for a united
Italy free from foreign bayonets and oppressive Go-
vernments, but the Government had not thought it
their duty to draw the sword in their behalf; they
had done their best to induce other Governments to
withdraw the obstacles they interposed to the unity
of Italy, but they had not, and in that they had the
unanimous concurrence of the country, thought fit to
go further than to give them advice, thus affording
a moral support to those who were struggling to
maintain freedom and constitutional liberty.
(Cheers.) In the case of Greece, it was not an un-
expected event that the late King should have been
forced to abandon his throne, or, rather, should
have been quietly dismissed in the most peaceful
and tranquil manner that ever befel a Sovereign in
the world. They had said the Greeks should be
suffered to take their own course, without any other
restrictions than that which provided that no mem-
ber of the royal family of the three great Powers
should be Sovereign of Greece. With that restric-
tion they might choose whom they pleased to rule
over them ; and with respect to the lonian Islands,
of which we were constituted a protectorate for the
benefit of Europe, the British Government had ex-
pressed its entire willingness to cede them to Greece
as soon as any sound and firm Government was
established. There was one subject which deeply
affected our domestic interest, and that was the
state of America. Two sections of a great and
hitherto happy couutry, akin to us in language,
liberty, love, and feeling, are engaged in a most
unnatural internecine war, and exhibit a spectacle
which they must all, for the sake of humanity alone,
deeply lament, quite independent of the conse-
quences which it had entailed upon this country.
With respect to that war, the Government had
deemed it its duty to observe the most perfect neu-
trality and impartiality. We had been, as might
have been expected, blamed on both sides—namely,
by the North for what had been called a too early re-
cognition of the belligerent rights of the South, and
by the South for not recognising them altogether.
He believed the British Government were right in
both cases. In the first place it was not done as a fa-
vour to the South, but because it was indispensable for
them to define the position in which vessels of the
South stood towards us. Either they were bellige-
rents, or they were pirates, and hardly any man in
England would say that a vessel holding a com•
mission from 7,000,000 or 8,000,000 of people, who
formed a de facto state, could be treated as a pirate.
(Hear.) On the other hand, when the French
Government invited the British Government to
interfere between the North and South they felt it
to be their duty to decline, not because they did not
sympathise with the amount of human struggling
in the country, or shrunk from anything that would
hold out a seasonable prospect of success in putting
an end to the contest now raging, but that they
believed that any offer of mediation which they
made at the present time would be sure to be refused,
and prevent taking such a course in future when
they might think that they had a chance of suc-
cess. That a better feeling might arise he could
not but hope, in which the Government would hold
itself perfectly free at any time to take a step which
it might think would be acceptable to both parties
for the sake of terminating this dreadful struggle.
He wished that he saw any symptoms of the abate-
ment of bitterness on either side, or any prospect of
speedy termination of the war. Neither party seem
to make much progress ; after a struggle which had
lasted a year and a half both parties stood very
much as they were at the commencement. The
attacking party was always repelled, and even, as
on the last occasion, the utmost gallantry being
displayed u, on the part of the assailants, one could
not but shudder at the spirit in which the war was
being carried on, and would to God that public ex-
pression of opinion would mitigate the horrors of
a sanguinary struggle between members of the same
race and the same family and of the same name, in
which one party is struggling for what, as far as
one could judge, seems to be hopeless, viz , the re-
constitution and re establishment of the Union.
Would that he could say the sufferings arising out of
this horrible war were confined to them, but the con-
sequence of their hostility has entailed an amount of
suffering here fearful to contemplate. He must say
that that distress had been borne with such fortitude,
such freedom from compl int, as had rendered the
people of Lancashire the admiration not only of the
country, hut of the world, for there never had been
ar instance in which such an amount of suffering
had been endured with such patience and such
resignation. He must say, that whatever other
causes had been at
work, he believed the education
which the working people now received and the
means which had been
given them of becoming ac
quainted with all that passed, and so enabled them
to appreciate the difficulties of those who were
placed in a higher station in life that they knew
that no one in this country was to blame for what
consequently bore had occurred, and they their suf-
ferings with a fortitude which was most honour- '
able to them ;nor could they
refuse to acknowlcdge