The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-07 00:00:00

house and say, on the part of his constituents, that they
would not have accepted the engagement if there had not
been a moral guarantee on the part of the Government ?
Then there would be societies organised to obtain justice.
People in the country who lend their money on the faith of
a convention now publicly referred to in the Speech of the
Royal Commissioners will complain that they have been
misled by the interference of the Crown. They will say
that they have a moral claim on the liberality of the coun-
try ; and I put it to the house whether under these circum-
stances the Chancellor of the Exchequer may not consider
himself fortunate if he can defeat such a movement. There-
fore, so far as the character of the transaction is concerned,
if political circumstances had been of so grave a character
that all financial considerations must yield to them, it would
have been better to have had an absolute legal and formal
guarantee than to have involved the Crown and the coun-
try in a transaction which, I cannot help thinking, if ad-
verse circumstances prevent dividends being forthcoming at
the necessary time, will involve the Government of this
country in considerable difficulty, accompanied, probably,
by considerable loss. There are many other topics in the
speech which are not undeserving of attention, but I confess
that I am not myself pecularly inclined on this night to
enter into any minute criticism or controversy on these
matters. No person can be insensible to the fact that the
house meets to-night under circumstances very much
changed from those which have attended our meetings for
many years. Of late years, indeed for more than 20 years
past, whatever may have been our personal rivalries, and
whatever our party strifes, there was at least one sentiment
in which we all coincided, which we all shared, and that
was the sentiment of admiring gratitude to that Throne
whose wisdom and goodness had so often softened the acer-
bities of our free public life, and had at all times so majes-
tically represented the matured intelligence of an enlight-
ened people. (Hear.) All that is changed. He is gone who
was the comfort and support of that Throne. It has been
said that there is nothing which England so much appre-
ciates as the fulfilment of duty. The Prince whom we have
lost not only was eminent for the fulfilment of duty, but it
was the fulfilment of the highest duty under the most diffi-
cult circumstances. Prince Albert was the Consort of his
Sovereign—he was the father of one who might be his
Sovereign—he was the Prime Councillor of a realm the
political constitution of which did not even recognize his
political existence. Yet under these circumstances, so
difficult and so delicate, he elevated even the Throne by the
dignity and purity of his domestic life. (Hear, hear.) He
framed and partially accomplished a scheme of education
for the heir of England which proved how completely its
august projector had contemplated the office of an English
King. (Hear, hear.) In the affairs of State, while his
serene spirit and his elevated position bore him above all
the possible bias of our party life, he showed on every great
occasion all the resources, all the prudence, and all the saga-
city of an experienced and responsible statesman. (Hear,
hear.) I have presumed to touch upon three instances in
which there was on the part of Prince Albert a fulfilment
of duty—duty of the highest character under circumstances
of the greatest difficulty. I will venture to touch upon
another point in his character equally distinguished by ful-
filment of duty, but in which the duty was not only ful-
filled, but was created. Although when he was adopted
by this country he was, after all, but a youth of tender
years, such was the character of his mind—at once observ-
ing and contemplative—that in due season he discovered
that notwithstanding all those great achievements which
long centuries of internal concord and public liberty had
permitted the energy and enterprise of Englishmen to
achieve, there was still a great deficiency in our national
character, which, if neglected, might lead to the impairing
not only of our happiness, but even of the sources of our
public wealth. That was a deficiency of culture. (Hear,
hear.) But he was not satisfied with detecting a want ;he
resolved to supply it. His plans were deeply laid ; they
were maturely prepared, and, notwithstanding the obstacles
which he inevitably encountered, I am prepared to say they
were eminently successful. What might have been his lot
had his term completed that which is ordained as the
average life of man, it would be presumption to attempt to
predict. Perhaps he would have impressed upon his age
not only his character but his name. But this, at least,
posterity must admit, that he heightened the intellectual
and moral standard of this country ; that he ex-
tended and expanded the sympathies of classes ; and
that he most beneficially and intimately adapted to the pro-
ductive powers of England the inexhaustible resources of
science and art. (Cheers.) It is sometimes deplored by
those who loved and admired him that he was thwarted oc-
casionally in his enterprises and that he was not duly appre-
ciatel. But these are not circumstances for regret, but for
congratulation. They prove the leading and original mind
which has so long and so advantageously laboured for this
country. Had he not encountered these obstacles, had he
not been subject to this occasional distrust and misrepre-
sentation, it would only have proved that he was a man of
ordinary mould and temper. Those who move must change,
those who change must necessarily disturb and alarm men's
prejedices. What he had to encounter was only a proof
that he was a man superior to his age, and, therefore, admi-
rably adapted for the work of progress. There is one point,
and one point only, on which I will presume for a moment
to dwell, and it is not for the sake of those who hear me,
or of the generation to which we belong, but it is that those
who come after us may not misunderstand the nature of this
illustrious man. Prince Albert was not a patron ;he was
not one of those who by their smiles reward excellence or
stimulate exertion. His contributions to the cause of pro-
gress were far more powerful and far more precious. He
gave to it his thought, his time, his toil ; he gave to it his
life. (Cheers.) On both sides and in all parts of this house
I see many gentlemen who occasionally have acted with the
Prince at those Council Boards where they conferred and
consulted upon the great undertakings with which he was
connected. I ask them, without fear of a denial, whether
he was not the leading spirit, whether his was not the mind
which foresaw the difficulty, his not the resources that
supplied the remedy; whether his was not the courage
which sustained them under apparently overpowering
difficulties; whether every one who worked with him did
not feel that he was the real originator of those great plans
of improvement which they assisted in carrying out. But
what, sir, avail these words P This house to-night has
been asked by the honourable gentleman to condole with the
Crown upon this great calamity. That is not an easy office.
(Hear, hear.) To condole, in general, is the office of those
who, without the pale of sorrow, still feel for the sorrowing.
But in this instance the country is as Leartstricken as its
Queen. (Hear, hear.) Yet in the mutual sensibility of
Sovereign and people there is something noble,—something
which elevates the spirit beyond the ordinary calamity of
earthly sorrow. (Hear.) The counties, the cities, and the
corporations of the realm—those illustrious associations of
learning and science and art and skill of which he was the
bright ornament and inspiring spirit, have bowed before the
Throne in this great calamity. (Hear, hear.) It does not
become the Parliament of the country to be silent. The
expression of our feelings may be late, but even in that
lateness some propriety will be observed. 'We, to-night--
the two houses—sanction the expression of the public sor-
row, and ratify, as it were, the record of a nation's woe. It
I is with these feelings, sir, that I shall support the:Address
of the hon. member. (Cheers.)
Lord PALMERSTON said,—l rejoice, and I think the
country will rejoice, that the Address which has been so
ably moved and seconded by my hon. friends behind me
will this night be unanimously adopted by the house, with-
out any proposal which at all interferes with the general
sense which the house entertains of the topics to which it
relates. The right hon. gentleman, however, who has just
sat down has made some observations, not to take notice of
which would be ill-becoming the members of the Govern-
ment. The right hon. gentleman has expressed his approval
of the course which we took in regard to the unfortunate
difference between this Government and the Government of
the United States upon the affair of the Trent. lam bound
to say—and I think the country and this house will agree—
that the communication which was made by my noble friend
at the head of the Foreign-office was a combination of the
utmost courtesy and consideration with firmness and deci-
sion (cheers), and that, with respect to those measures which
we deemed necessary to provide for any turn which that
affair might possibly take, my noble friend at the head of the
Admiralty, my right hon. friend at the head of the
War Department, and any noble friend at the head of the
Colonial-office showed a promptitude, a vigour, and a judg-
ment to which, I think, we may in a great degree ascribe
the fortunate termination of the difference. (Cheers.) We
should not have been justified in anticipating, as a matter
of course, a favourable termination to that question, because
we knew that there had been passions let loose in America
which might be too strong for the Government and might
overbear them in the course which I am suro they must
have been desirous of pursuing. Therefore, the measures
which we took were those which prudence prescribed, and
while, on the one hand, they were equal to the occasion, I
think, on the other, they cannot be deemed greater than the
occasion requited. (Hear.) The right hon. gentleman ex-
pressed his approval of the course which the Government
had taken from the commencement of those unhappy disputes
in America, in preserving strict neutrality between the con-
tending parties. That position of strict neutrality we have,
as he has very handsomely admitted, sincerely and rigidly
observed, and from that position of strict neutrality it is not
our intention to depart. (Cheers.) We regret, no doubt,
the calamities which that war is bringing upon the kindred
population of the United ttta' es ; we lament the pressure
which incidentally that war has produced upon the corn
mercial and manufacturing interests of this country ; but
we do not think that that is a sufficient reason why we
should depart from a course which a sense of prudence and
a sense, I may say, of national honout have imposed on us,
or why we should interfere in a quarrel with which origi-
nally we had nothing to do. (Cheers.) The right hon. gen
tleman adverted in the next place to that part of the Speech
which relates to the expedition to Mexico. The convention
between England, France, and Spain has been laid upon the
table. It will speak for itself, and it will show that we are not
parties to any undertaking to interfere in the internal ar-
rangements of the Mexican Government, and that we confine
our operations to obtaining redress for wrongs and injuries
sustained. The convention stipulates that the operations of
the allies for the purpose of obtaining redress are not to be
perverted into any interference with the object of dictating
to the people of Mexico any particular form of govern-
ment which they may not be willing to accept. Un-
doubtedly reports have been spread that there are persons
MalCO who with to coveo the Republiu into a WV