The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-03 00:00:00

THE MEMBERS FOR ROCHESTER AND

THEIR CONSTITUENTS.

ROCHESTER, Monday Night.
This evening Mr. P. W. Martin and Mr. Ser-
geant J. A. Kinglake, the members for this city,
met their constituents in the Corn Exchange, for
the purpose. of delivering their accustomed annual
addresses prior to the openfng of Parliament. The
large room was crowded with the freemen and elec-
tors, and on the platform were seated the leading
magistrates and members of the common council.
The chair was taken by Mr. S. Steele;one of the
borough magistrates, and chairman of the Liberal
Registration Association, who, in highly eulogistic
terms, introduced the two hon. members to the
meeting.
Mr. MARTIN, who, on rising, was received with
loud and continued applause, said seven years had
elapsed since they first sent him to the House of
Commons, but he was happy to say he had had a
very kind and indulgent master during his appren-
ticeship. (A laugh.) On all broad general ques-
_ __ _

tions he had voted according to the pledges he had
given, and in accordance with the opinions of the
great majority of his constituents. The last session
had been called by some an idle session, but there
ought to be some allowances for circumstances which
hadoccurred. At the present time the House of Com-
mons contained nearly as many Conservatives as
Liberals, so that had any great Parliamentary fight
occurred it must have resulted in a dissolution,
which was to be deprecated, considering the grief
into which her Majesty was plunged. The
House of Commons, however, had not been with-
out its contests, the principal of which was on the
question of church rates. Instead of that question
having retrograded, a larger number of members
voted for the ayes than ever voted before. (Cheers.)
The course the Conservatives had then adopted
would, he believed, prove to be extremely detrimen-
tal to the interests of the Church of England.
(Hear.) With regard to the subject of national
expenditure, from all they heard they were to have
a large reduction. (Loud cheers.) The Tory party
had clways maintained that the Liberals were ruin-
ing the revenues of the country, but at the present

time the revenue was never in a more encouraging
condition. He believed that her Majesty's Govern-
ment had decided on a wise and judicious economy.
One kind of economy had been already tried, in the
reduction of the navy by 20,000 men, the result of
which was that men had to be obtained at a pre-
mium of 110 a head, thereby losing men and money,
and were badly served at last. A. member sitting for
a town so closely allied as Rochester was to one of
the national dockyards, could hardly be expected
to advocate any reduction in the navy—(a laugh)—
but he did hope to be able to congratulate them
next year on the reduction of the income tax.
(Cheers.) There was one bill which had been
brought in by an excellent member of the House
of Commons—he alluded to the Conveyance of
Voters to the Poll Bill—which he believed to be a
piece of organised hypocrisy. (A laugh.) If they
gave a man a vote, they were bound to give him
every facility for exercising it. (Applause.) He
should therefore continue to vote against that bill,
which he believed would have the effect of dis-
franchising thousands of electors. (Hear.) During
the past year a very large number of their fellow-
countrymen had been plunged in the deepest dis-
tress. He was not going to damage the suffering
classes by his praise, but they had borne their suf-
ferings nobly. (Cheers.) Turning to other topics
the hon. member expressed his intention of support-
ing the foreign policy of her Majesty's Government,
believing that it was most conducive to the interests
of this country. That policy was to observe the
strictest neutrality in the unhappy quarrel which
was now raging across the Atlantic. (Hear, hear.)
In no wars of modern times had the loss of life been
BO great as during the dreadful strife raging in
America. He wished for peace between the two
belligerents; but he sincerely trusted it would be
attained without foreign intervention, and that Eng-
land would not meddle between either parties.
Their policy must be not to interfere between one
party or the other. They might say he was luke-
warm on the subject of the abolition of slavery, but
he denied it. The restoration of the Union meant
the perpetuation of slavery, but if the South main-
tained their independence he believed it would be
impossible to maintain slavery. Be the result of
the contest what it may, one good thing would re-
sult from it, namely, the death-knell of slavery all
• over the world. (Cheers.) With regard to the sub-
ject of granting tickets of leave to convicts, he de-
cidedly disapproved of making a convict's punish-
ment a farce. (Hear, hear.) After alluding to
some local topics, Mr. Martin resumed his seat
amidst great applause.
Mr. Sergeant KINOLAKE next addressed the elec-
tors, and on presenting himself to the audience was
received with great cheering. The hon. and learned
gentleman gave an outline of the various measures
which had been passed during the past session, pass-
ing in review the Church-rate Abolition Bill, to
which he had given his warmest assent, and other
measures. The learned gentleman expressed his
intention to support her Majesty's present Govern-
ment, as being the only body of men who repre-
sented the feelings of this great country on the
questions of the day.
A vote of thanks was presented to both gentlemen
at the close of their addresses.

BEETHOVEN'S DEAFNESS.--Beethoven was not—
as might be supposed from his uncouth demeanour
in company—averse to joining in the pleasures of the do-
mestic circle, being by nature of a social disposition, but
was forced to withdraw almost entirely from public
through the infirmity of deafness. This malady was
the source of profound anguish to Beethoven ; and yet,
had he not been thereby afflicted, his tendencies,
which were certainly jovial, would probably have betrayed
him into such an habitual career of amusement, as would
materially have interfered with his genius for composition.d
Where would have been that continued abstraction, secured
to him by his isolation from society, and which constitutes
his
a prime source of the magnitude and system of
became the
the blindness of Milton, though indir;ente
poems in
works ? Similarly, we hear lamentations. ultteirtedm:espyeeting
indirectly it
epic
efficient cause in producing ono of
asked'
a're nebted for
existence. To what, it may bte:
teho, ~ paradiser Lost ?"
the
from his loss of the capacity of
Manigfersatnlyd
blessing of light, js:gPlowerful appreciation of the
, sP'-ingl-nsliore melancholy to contemplate
tosaltihlooluayutohno.r'
Again, nothing
vision. land yet wealth would, with him,
than Mozart'6 poverty;
have inevitably enervated
that intellect which the necessities
Beethoven's
permanent penury kept
continually
ac-
five.
induced by a
deafness may, therefore, be considered
rather favourable than otherwise to the development of his
genius; and not the least of the marvels connected with
this wonderful man was the faculty which he acquired of
estiu,a4ing, in his cerapositions, the effect of particular
combinations of sound, which he did not and never could
have heard.—&, James's Oirtgazine.