The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-09 00:00:00

OXFORD.

The Secretary of State for the Colonies has issued
the following address to the electors of Oxford :
" The present Parliament is rapidly drawing to a close,
and I venture respectfully to request a renewal of the con-
fidence you have been kind enough to repose in me. Dur-
ing the six years this Parliament has sat, the peace of the
world has been disturbed by wars in Europe, and by the
desolating contest which has afflicted the United States of
America. But the policy of this country has been strictly
neutral ; and, notwithstanding the serious impediment
thrown by the American War in the way of our principal
branch of industry, that policy has been rewarded by a
great and continued prosperity in almost every department
of trade. Public attention had been drawn in 1859 to the
changes which modern inventions had introduced in the
system of military attack and defence, and it was generally
acknowledged that very considerable expenditure must be in-
curred in consequence. The present Parliament has devoted
to the established services of the country, in connexion with
this subject, sums hitherto unprecedented in time of peace,
and has called into existence, under permanent enactments,
the Volunteers and the Royal Naval Reserve. Yet, not-
withstanding the heavy calls thus made upon the public
purse, there has seldom been any equal period of our his-
tory in which such great reductions of taxations have been
made, or such improvements effected in the mode
of raising the sums necessary for the public service. The
French treaty in particular has broken down barriers
which restricted our intercourse with that country ; and
besides enlarging the resources of our commerce, has added
new securities for the maintenance of that good under-
standing between the nations which is so important, not
only to England and France, but also to the whole civilised
world. The last important act of the expiring House of
Commons has been to pass a bill, extending the opportu-
nities afforded to the rural labourer for carrying his indus-
try to the best market, thus applying to labour (the only
capital of the poor) that principle of freedom which expe-
rience has shown to be the first condition of progress in
every branch of employment. Many of these measures
have been passed with the concurrence of men of different
parties ; and there probably never was a time when con-
tentment was more universally diffused, or when party
spirit interposed fewer obstacles in the way of measures
intended to promote the public good. It has been the
policy, and I doubt not it will be more and more the policy
of this country, to apply to the distant possessions of the
Crown the liberal principles on which we act at home ;
to encourage in the colonies the spirit of self-reliance ; to
derelope local energy and resource; and to confide in the
loyalty of the colonists, and their attachment to British
institutions, for the maintenance of those bonds which
unite under the British Crown so many powerful and pros-
perous communities in every quarter of the globe. The
Government of which I am a member made an effort in
1864 to settle the question of Reform, but that effort was
not successful. The House of Commons did not receive
with favour the proposed measure, and public opinion did
not appear to give it any very effectual support. 1 shall be
ready in the future, as I have been in the past, to give my
best consideration to any measure having for its object the
settlement of the question in general conformity with-the
views I have heretofore expressed."