The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-07 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 1865,

Mr. RAIKES has made his speech at Chester, in
rivalry of Mr. GLADSTONE'S celebrated harangue.
He said very truly that there was a similarity be-
tween the speeches of Mr. W. 11. GLADsToNE and
his father. There was some truth in the remarks
made by Mr. RAIKES respecting the credit which
some politicians assume to themselves concerning
the adoption of free trade. Those who so eagerly
applaud themselves had not really anything mate-
rially to do with it, but only followed the lead of
those more sapient and far-seeing than themselves.
Besides, at this date, it is quite absurd to be always
setting up the ghost of Protection, like the skeleton
at the Egyptian feasts, to forward the cause of
election candidates. Mr. RAIKES naturally felt
rather irritated at the interference of Mr. GLADSTONE
in this election, and he quoted an anecdote which
was very appropriate to illustrate his meaning as to
the propriety of a Cabinet Minister mixing up in
election tactics. The other day the friends of one
of the candidates for Westminster asked Mr.
GLADSTONE, and through his secretary he informed
them that, as a member of her Majesty's Govern-
ment, he could not interfere in any election. Mr.
RAIKES has had the advantage of a reply to his for-
midable opponent, and retorted on the latter's
strictures on the observation of there being no
Government in England. He said that it would
require more than all the combined eloquence of
the whole official pack to satisfy them that " the
function of a Government is to sit with folded
hands, and to entrust the duty of directing
public opinion and the task of initiating
national legislation to a little knot of Par-
liamentary irregulars, who might be called the
Baslii-Bazouks of Liberalism." Certaintly the do-
nothing policy of our present administrators is a
strong point for their opponents to take hold of,
and it cannot be said that any change of a material
nature has taken place in our home legislation
during the period of Lord PALMERSTON'S tenure of
office. Mr. RAIKEs admitted the modesty of Mr.
GLADSTONE in ignoring his own claims to be one of
the leading Ministers of the Crown, and in giving
all the honours to Lords PAL3IERSTON and RUSSELL.
Yet here again the speaker's memory adduced a
very awkward circumstance concerning Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S antecedents in politics. Same years ago
there was a general election when Lord PAL-
MERSTON was Premier, and the orator who
then exposed the fallacies of the noble
lord's proceedings was no other than the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer. As for Earl RUSSELL
Mr. RAIKES acknowledged his merits, but truly
added- that his great achievements of past days
were carried -out in the teeth of the party Mr.
GLADSTONE then belonged to ; and he added there
could be no more melanchDly thing in the decline
of years " than that the great Reform Minister
should become the subordinate of a subordinate,
and that the man who stood to PEEL should live to
be patronised by GLADSTONE." As for the French
Treaty Mr. RAIKEs awarded it moderate praise,
but lie brought forward some proofs of its failure.
All knew what the papermakers thought of it, and
what effect it had produced upon the Coventry
aii,j SpitalfL‘bl'3 weavers, and in the neighbouring
ty..-t,-ns of Macclesfield and Congleton. Finally, Mr.
PA TEE; Made an amusing allusion to the pertinacity
of Mr. GL A DSTONE'S predilection for this work, and
said that great men were always fondest of their 1
most unpopular productions. 4, MILTON preferred
Paradise Regained' to Paradise Lost ;' and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer probably prefers his
French Treaty because it was the first thing he did
after he had regained the paradise of Downing-
street." On the whole, Mr. EAMES seems to have
made an entertaining speech, in which lie made
many good hits at the enemy without losing his
temper, and without indulging in those per-
sonalities which afterwards reflect 80 much dis-