The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-02 00:00:00

away. It is not easy to part with them, because we
must admit, and especially we must admit so far as
the working classes are concerned, that the first re-
organization of the principles may involve, or may
appear to involve, something of a personal sacrifice ;
but the whole mind in this community is perfectly,
I believe, fixed in the conviction that these princi-
ples are the only principles upon which a country
can be justly governed, nor need I say that which
is so well known, that this, at least, is a country in
which the conviction of the country must be the regu-
lator of the State. (Cheers.) My Lord Provost, I
once more thank you for the honour that you have
been pleased to do me. I think that, so far as the
prospects of our politics are concerned, the refer-
ence that I have made to the name of the distin-
guished person who has succeeded to the head of the
Government is, perhaps, more becoming, and islike-
wise of a character to carry greater weight than any
mere professions that I could lay down before you
of a desire to serve my country. (Cheers.) It is an
arduous task to which we are called. I do not hesi-
tate to say that the most painful, the most fre-
quently-recurring sentiments of public life must, I
think, be a sense of the inadequacy of resources,
inadequacy of physical strength, inadequacy of
mental strength, to meet its innumerable obliga-
tions ; at the same time that pain is not aggravated
by a sense that our shortcomings are severely
judged. We serve a Sovereign whose confidence
has ever been largely given for the counsellors who
are charged with public responsibility, and we act
for a people ever ready to overlook shortcomings,
to pardon errors, to construe intentions favourably,
and to recognise with a warmth and generosity be-
yond measure any amount of real service that may
have been conferred. (Cheers.) We ought, there-
fore, to be cheerful ; we ought, above all, to be
grateful in the position in which we stand ; and
these are not mere idle words, but they are what
the situation evidently demands and exacts from us
all, when we assure you that it is a rich reward to
come among great great masses of our most culti-
vated and intelligent fellow-citizens to find our-
selves cheered onward in our course by acknow-
ledgments such as that which you have given me
to-day. We have little to complain of ; we have
much, indeed, to acknowledge with thankfulness,
and most of all we have to delight.in the recollec-
tion that the politics of this world are perhaps very
slowly, with many hindrances, many checks, many
reverses, yet that upon the whole they are gradually
assuming a character which promises to be less and
less one of aggression and offence ; less and less
one of violence and bloodshed; more and more one
of general union and friendliness ; more and more
one connecting the common reciprocal advantages
and the common interests pervading the world, and
uniting together the whole of the human family in
a manner which befits rational and immortal beings,
owing their existence to one Creator, and having
but one hope either for this world or the next.
Mr. Gladstone resumed his seat amid great cheer-
ing. He subsequently visited the Exchange,where he
was received enthusiastically by an immense throng
within and without the walls of the building.

In the evening Mr. Gladstone was entertained at a
private banquet by the Lord Provost, after which the right'
hon. gentleman, escorted by his host and guests, repaired
to the Scotia Hall, for the purpose of receiving an address
from the working men of Glasgow. Mr. Dalglish, M.P.,
presided. _ _ _

The right hon. gentleman, on entering the hall, with
Mrs. and Misses Gladstone and Lady Blantyre, were most
enthusiastically cheered.
The CHAIRMAN briefly opened the proceedings, and said
that the working men of Glasgow having two years ago
presented an address to the great and popular Minister whose
death they were deploring, they were now anxious to pay
a similar compliment to the working men of the late Cabi-
net. He reviewed the valuable measures which Mr.
Gladstone had been instrumental in passing, which were
doubly valuable for the benefits they would confer on the
working classes, and expressed his belief that if he had been
the son of a duke instead of a Liverpool merchant there
could bo no doubt that at this moment he would have been
at the head of the Government ; but as Mr. Gladstone had
consented to retain office as Chancellor of the Exchequer,
he could only congratulate them on still retaining his most
valuable services in that most important post. (Cheers.)
Mr. WILKINSON then read and presented the address.
Mr. GLADSTONE on coming forward was received with the
warmest enthusiasm, the audience rising en masse and
greeting him with vocifeeetaa et
hats. He said, Mr. Dalglish, Mr. Wilkinson, and Gentle-
men—Be assured that 1 do not underrate the value of this
address, neither, I hope, do I overrate the position which I
myself occupy in respect to it. This address contains much,
gentlemen, and I have heard much in the speeches that
have accompanied it, which I could not with a good con-
science appropriate to myself. I am conscious that I am in
a condition at the present moment the very reverse of that
which sometimes is held by an unfortunate individual who,
when ho happens to be detected in a particular fault, forth-
with has laid upon him all the blame that is due to all the
faults of that particular kind that have ever been committed
in the country. (Laughter and cheers.) That, gentlemen,
is what is called being made a scapegoat, and I have been
made a scapegoat in a very opposite sense, because it ap-
pears to me that the good deeds of men who have preceded
me, and men who have greatly exceeded me, appear to be
so regarded in your minds as if I were myself to reap
at this happy moment their undivided credit. Gentle-
men, I ask for myself no such undivided credit. I pre-
sume to draw no distinction, and I could honestly draw no
distinction, between myself and many more who have
laboured as sincerely and more effectually in the same good
cause. (Cheers.) I must even say a word—and it is the
only word of criticism that I feel called upon to utter—l
must even say a word after the speech of my hon. friend, your
able,tried, and trusted representative—(cheers)—on behalf of
the heads of departments; and I bog to assure those who now
hear me that without the valuable assistance received from
the experienced civil servants of the State it would be im-
possible for the political advisers of the Crown to have car-
ried into effect those improvements which have been of so
much advantage to the country. (Cheers.) lam a fellow-
labourer, gentlemen, with many more ; yet I do thank my
honourable friend, and I do appropriate to myself, if I may
do it without undue pride, that one expression which he
has used when he has described me in an assembly of
working men, as myself a working man. (Cheers.) I hope,
gentlemen, that I may be allowed to address you in that
capacity. There is very little use in my coming among you
to use the words of mere compliment or flattery; but this I
do feel, that there is use in having personal contact between
the public men of this country and the masses of the popu-
lation, if they meet together in that spirit of earnestness and
sincerity which ought to characterise all our proceedings.
And we live at a time when it is more than ever advisable,
so far as it may be practicable, that a course of this kind
take place; because the 19th century, whatever it is, is un-
doubtedly in a new and peculiar sense the century of the
working man. It is tho century which has soon his position
raised, his circumstances improved, new moans organised
for his benefit, new prospects opened for the future, and ho
has before him—l mean not the individual, but the class—
he has before him a prospect which, as I trust, nothing can
mar, of increased weight, increased consideration, increased
usefulness, increased happiness in the generations to come.
As by the law of Providence the working man and his
family do constitute, probably must ever constitute, the
great majority of the community, the circumstances attach-
ing to their condition must be circumstances of the deepest
interest to every man who carries a heart in his bosom.
We have arrived at a time when it is for us to consider
that which has taken place, and that which is yet to come.

We have seen great changes ; the majority of those whom
I am addressing are younger than myself, but many of
them will recollect—and more particularly so for they

have felt the nature and character of those changes—

much has been done, happily done, to improve the general
condition of the people. Ido not mean to say that it is to
be treated as a favour conferred on them. It has simply
been the performance of a duty, as a matter of right and
justice, aided by the progress of political economy, of social
knowledge, and the favouring circumstances of the time.
(Loud cheers.) I will endeavour, with your permission, to
run rapidly over some of the particulars in which the posi-
tion of the working classes has been so greatly changed for
the better, also as to what there are which may yet re-
main. Thirty years ago this country, like all other coun-
tries in the world, was overspread with a network of what
was called the protective system; and I cannot describe
that protective system more truly and more concisely in
any other words than by saying, that it appears to be an
elaborate contrivance by means of which, under the mask
and notion of doing good, a nation devises a most ingenious
instrument for robbing, plundering, and impoverishing
itself. (Cheers.) There was hardly a trade, with tho ex-
ception of the cotton industry, that did not suppose itself
to be more or less interested in this pretended protective
system that is now like an evil dream passed away as a thing
of the past; and all that remains to be done, with certain
exceptions which I hope will soon disappear, and that we
shall be thankful for the escape which we have bad, is to
endeavour to induce the other countries of the world to
confer on themselves the same advantages which we have
been happy enough to secure. Well, now, at the time I
speak of what was the condition of the labouring man in
regard to that which must ever occupy a very large share
of his legitimate cares—anxieties, I mean, in, regard to
hisaccoss to the means of subsistence ? Almost every neces-
sary upon which he depended was taxed and enhanced in
price, sometimes by the comparatively legitimate mode of
the payment due to the Exchequer, and applied to meeting
the necessities of the State; more frequently and more mis-