The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-03 00:00:00

LORD PALMERSTON AT LEITH.

-A WINDFALL—At a sale of old naval stores
which took place at Hanlbowline, a few days since,
a woman residing on the island purchased an old sailor's
jacket for a small sum. On examininr the article she found
concealed in the lining two £5 Bank of England notes and
a bank order for £9O. The order appears to be genuine, and
as no claimant has or is likely to turn up for the money
she will probably reap all the advantage of her good for-
tune. Considerable disappointment was occasioned by the
discovery to another bidder for the article, who had kept up
a spirited contest with the purchaser, and who had only
been outbid by 3d.—Cork Herald.
THE MALT DUTIES.—On the 14th April,accord-
ing to present arrangements, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer will receive a deputation from the central society
for the reduction of the malt duties. 1' is rumoured that the
much-vaunted surplus of two or three millions on which
the Chancellor was to operate this year has become already
very considerably attenuated, and that the hopes of all ex-
pectant interests—even those of the insurance companies—
have greatly declined. Meanwhile, the deputation will have
the authority of official statistics for stating that in the past
year,
as compared with 1861, there was a deficiency in the
quantity of malt made of nearly three million bushels. The
Chancellor will hardly be able to 1.3, this upon the cotton
tthatil nearlyNv o ul
d scarcelythe
e
close
o beginthe ety.eatre.u.ruhpeorne thew
as also
con-
sumptionfaamveiryne'as considerable increase in the drawbacks on exporta-
tion, proving that the consumption of beer in this country
must be rapidly falling off. The local society for the repeal
of the malt duties will no doubt take some steps to join the
deputation.'—Maidstone Journal,

LEITH, Thursday.
This afternoon, at 3 o'clock, Viscount Palmerston
paid a visit to L-ith, where great preparations were
made for his reception. Across the main streets
arches were erected and flags trained, and great,
crowds from both Edinburgh and Leith crowded
the aver ties by which he appronohed the town. The
Provost met his Lordship shortly after 2 o'clock,
and, accompanied by Mr. Miller, the member for
the burgh town, showed the Premier round the
docks, and explained to him the grand Frojt-cted
improvements iu the harbour and docks situate on
this portion of the estuary of the Forth. At half-
past 3 o'clocx Lord Palmerston, preceded by the
Provost, magistrates, and council of the burgh, en-
tered the new building called the Corn-Exchange
of Leith, in which between 800 and 900 ladies and
gentlemen had assembled to welcome his Lordship,
and nothing could be more cordial than his recep-
tion. Among those present were the Lord Provost
of Edinburgh, Mr. Miller, M.P., Mr. Black, M.P.,
Sir William Dunbar, M.P., Sir D. Brewster, Pro-
fessor Syme, the Right Hon. W. Cowper, &c.
The Provost of Leith having taken the chair,
His LORDSHIP called on the Town Clerk to read
the address of congratulation voted by the corpora-
tion, which referred to some of the more salient
points of the noble lord's character and administra-
tion, which were received with much cheering by
the assemblage.
Viscount PALMERSTON, who was received with
great cheering, said :
" I beg to assure you that I am deeply sensible of the
kindness which has led you to invite me to this distinguished
meeting, and which has prompted those expressions of ap-
probation and kindness which are contained in the address
that I have just had the honour to receive. (Cheers.)
Nothing can be more gratifying to those who are engaged
in the public service than receiving expressions of approval
on the part of enlightened communities in this country.
(Cheers,) And when you, Mr. Provost, and the municipa-
lity of the town, in that address point especially to those
measures which in recent times have tended to encourage
the development of the productive interest and the commer-
cial enterprise of the country I must feel that there is no
community better entitled to appreciate any benefit which
may have been conferred upon the country in that direction
than those which have been conferred on the people of the
town of Leith. (Cheers.) I have been happy enough to re-
ceive flattering demonstrations of personal regard and that
approval of g.neral conduct from those parts of Scotland I
have visited before coming here. I received them on the
banks of the Clyde, and I should indeed have been mortified
if I had not received them also on the banks of the Forth—
(cheers)—and I am glad to find that if the waters of the
Clyde were warm and refreshing, those of the Feet th were
equally worthy of the appellation. (Cheers.) It is now, gen-
tlemen, many long years since I visited the town of Leith.
The great features of nature remain as they were ; your
noble estuary is, as then, open to receive every friendly
visitor, and open also for the departure of your vessels to
every quarter of the globe. That gallant island Inchkeith
still rises gloriously from the waters of the Forth. Your
beautiful prospects are still bounded by those picturesque
hills of Fiteshire which are the admiration of you all. Your
links are not perh so crowded with golf-players as they
used to be—(cheers)—because that game, I am told, has
somewhat migrated towards the no th. Your sand, lam
told, are not so much trodden by the heels of racing
coursers as they used to be—(cheers)—but there they stilt
are for pleasure, for rect., alien, and your noble waters
afford equal advantage for health in bathing. (Cheers
and laughter.) There is one lamentable exception. There
is that unhappy water ef Leith. (Laughter.) Would for
its sake it were the waters of Lathe—(renewed laughter)—
that it might forget its former glories and the happiness of
its former days; but there it is, like the lost rose of summer
(laughter)—left mourning alone ; all its lovely companions—
namely, the old trading smacks—now faded and gone. (Much
laughter and cheering.) In the days of which I speak its
muddy bottom was covered at low water with a great accu-
mulation of very small and indifferent le ooden ships. They
are gone ; peace go with them ! But, though the great
features of nature are unchanged, I should hardly know the
Leith of former years. Whatever way I turn there are traces
and results of enlightened intelligence, of ample and well-
guided expenditure of capital, of successful and skilful per-
severance, and your town, which at that time could not rank
high among those communities which were placed by na-
ture on the banks of admirable estuaries, now deserves to be
classed in the first rank of British ports. (Cheers.) I have
traversed to-day with the greatest delight those splendid
docks which of late years have been the creation of your
genius and your industry ; and it is a proud satisfaction to
the people of Leith to know that they have built the finest
docks for the reception of vessels and for their repair which
exists in any part. at least of this eastern coast, of the king-
dom. (Cheers.) You have a dock 400 feet long, within 20 feet
big enough to receive even the Warrior and the Black Prince
but large enough to repair all the other ships of her Majesty's
navy, if they should require, in consequence of any disaster
rd but I have had shown
either of tempest or of action, to come to your friendly port
forwh repair.irechfltsthinougldocrontentina
o Well,
mthis
ans
a noble work—one
to me a plan which you contemplate carrying into execution
on a much larger scale, which will afford basins and docks
almost unrivalled, except perhaps by the great towns of
Liverpo 1 and London. (Cheers.) I trust you will be able
to accomplish this, and to your honour be it said that all
you have, and I believe I may assert also all you are going
to do, has been done by the expenditure of your own capital
and money, the product of your euccessful enterprise and
industry, and therefore it is doubly bsnourable to you, and
more advantageous it will be in the end than if it had
been the result of donations from other parts of the
empire. (Cheers.) Your worthy provost has adverted to
the course which this and preceding Governments have
pursued in regard to the commerce of this country. Well,
there was a time when it was believed that the interest and
the profit of the few were to be preferred to the interest and
advantage of the many ; many mortoplies were held to be
sacred things, not to be touched by the profane hands of
innovation ; when exclusive privileges and protection were
considered to be the foundation of the national prosperity
and I remember a very enlightened foreigner talking to me
upon the subject maintaining, and I was unable to convince
him of his errer, that it was all very well for England to
counsel liberality of commerce and the abolition of restric-
tions and protection, these being the ladder by which in his-
opinion she had risen to greatness and prosperity, and that
we were acting a treacherous part to other countries by
advising them before they had reached our eminence to cist
away the m 2ana by which alone we had reached that sum-
mit. Why,' I told him, you are very much mistaken.
You are taking the very wrong end of your argument
These restrictions which you say are the means of our
greatness have retarded its accomplishment. (Cheers.)
They have been the obstacles which have prevented the
earlier development of the natural energies and resources of
the country ; but you now, by persisting in following our
steps in error, will only be longer in arriving with us at the
summit of truth.' (Cheers.) Well, gentlemen, strong and
successful in point of argument as those were who advo-
cated free trade and unrestricted exchange of commodities
with other countries, long was it before practical men could
be convinced of the truth. We were told, ' This is all very
well in theory, but we are practical men ; you are theorists
and idle dreamers ; practical men alone are those who are
capable of judging of the effect of legislation upon human
affairs.' Well, it has often well been said that the practi-
cal man was the greatest theorist, only he was a bad theo-
rist; that he founded his opinions upon a theory which he
had based upon narrow induction and upon a mistaken
view of the foundations upon which theories ought to
rest ; that those whom he called theorists founded their
opinions upon a larger and more rational view of things ;
that they, therefore, were right, and that he consequently
was wrong. (Hear, hear.) Well, great and obstinate was
the battle fought between these theorists and these practical
men, commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural ; all
thought that these theorists were their bitterest enemies;
that their theories if carried into practice would be the
ruin of all the industry of the country, and therefore they
resisted them, as it were to the death. Well, their re-
sistance was vain, but their death was not the consequence
of their defea'-. (Laughter.) Look around in every direcs-
lion, traverse your agricultural districts, see those fields
that you were told were to be left barren and uncultivated
the moment that the country was to be deluged by the
importation of foreign corn. What error is often comprised
in and imported by the misapplication of a word, and be-
cause ' deluge' is a word that conveys the idea of the sub-
mersion of land by water and the extinction of all life
and property the application of tho word ' deluge' to
the importation of the staff of life created a prejudice in the
minds of men, and they said, For Heaven's sake, don't
bring upon us a second deluge in the shape of importation
of the staff of life; Well, look at your agricultural dis
tricte. See what new life has been inspired by the compe-
tition which the abolition of the corn laws has produced ;
how science has been brought to the aid of agriculture, how
machinery, which never before was thought applicable to
the cultivation of land has been largely and most beneficially
introduced for the purpose ; and talk now to the owners and
the renters of land and they will tell you, if they are men
capable of conviction, ihat they see their error; that they
would not have protection back again if it could be bestowed
upon them; that they admit the advantages which have
accrued even to them by the extension of the commercial
intercourse of the country with other nations. (Cheers.)