The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-15 00:00:00

sensitive—namely, the question of expenditure.
(Laughter.) Theyknew he was one of those expend-
ing monsters. He spent more than anybody else in
the country. It was his misfortune to be obliged,
for the maintenance of the services which were re-
quired for the defence of the country and for the
maintenance of our possessions, to ask for large esti-
mates from the House of Commons. He had per-
fect confidence that the house would always vote
whatever might be really needed for the defence of
the country and for the maintenance of our honour,
but he could make no pledges for the future. As
with regard to reform, so with regard to expendi-
ture, he could only ask them to look at the past acts
and professions of the Government, and, until they
could belie those acts and were false to their profes-
sions, to give the Government their confidence. On
this matter of expenditure he would remind them
that during the last three years the army estimates
had been steadily reduced, and that during those
three years no less a sum than £1,700,000 had been
taken from them. (Hear, hear.) If his duty forbade
him to enter upon those general political topics
which it would have been his business to discuss if
he had been as formerly their representative, it would
at least be his duty to carry back to his colleagues
and make known to them the spirit by which that
great meeting was animated—(applause)—the views
which they had received with favour, the reasonable,
the moderate, and thoroughly Liberal opinions by
which they appeared to be animated. (Applause.)
In reply to the toast of " The House of Lords,"
Lord Houghton said he believed there was no-
thing in this country on which the opinion of
the House of Lords really differed from the
opinion of the country. A great number of the
peers had passed much of their lives in the House of
Commons, and had daily experience in that school
of political wisdom, which he believed was a better
education for high office and for public life than
any functional administration whatever. He could
conceive no reason why there should be any diffe-
rence between the House of Lords and the rest of
the country upon any great political question.
(Hear, hear.) A number of other toasts followed.

Opening of the Glasgow Industrial

Exhibition.

The inaugural meeting was held in the City-hall,
which was filled with a large audience. Mr. Wm.
Melvin, president of the Exhibition, occupied the
chair, and was supported on the platform by the
Duke of Argyll ; the Marquis of Lorn ; Captain
Spiers, M.P. ; Mr. 11. E. Crum-Ewing, IMP. ;
Duncan M'Laren, BI.P. ; Mr. W. Graham, M.P. ;
Lord Provost Blackie ; Sir Archibald Alison,
Bart. ; Mr. Ramsay, of Kidalton, and most of the
gentlemen who were present at.the opening of the
Exhibition. The Duchess of Argyll and a party of
ladies occupied a front seat in the gallery to the
right of the platform. While the audience was
assembling, Mr. Lambeth played a selection of
popular music on the grand organ.
At eight o'clock the President took the chair,
amid loud applause.
An inaugural hymn, written by Mr. George Roy,
having been sung,
The CHAIRMAN introduced the Duke of Argyll to
the meeting.
The Duke of ARGYLL, who was received with
great applause, which was several times renewed,
said—The first duty which I feel under on the
present occasion is to congratulate the working
men of Glasgow, and I do it most heartily, on the
very large measure of success which has attended
the exhibition which was opened by them and for
them here to-day. (Cheers.) Although I have
had a comparatively cursory glance /of the Ex-
hibition, I can say that it contains a very much
larger and fuller collection of objects of ingenuity,
of beauty, and of art than I for one was at all
prepared to see upon this occasion. And I re-
joice especially to be assured from the figures
which have been given to me by your Chair-
man, that it is not mbrely an Industrial Ex-
hibition, open for the benefit of the club con-
nected with the working classes in Glasgow, but
that it is a bona fide exhibition, in which the
greater part of the objects are contributed and are
made by working men. (Cheers.) lam told that
out of 500 total exhibitors, there are upwards of
I 400 who belong to the working class. (Cheers.)
sow, I need hardly say that in some points of view
it may be said that the whole 'exhibition has come
from the hatids of working men. In a certain sense
ill that we have and all that we enjoy is the product
of labour—the houses which shelter us, the raiment
that covers us, the railways by which we travel, the
ships which convey our commerce—almost all the
objects, in short, of luxury or of art—all that dig-
nifies and adorns our life comes through the hands
of working men. (Cheers.) But this is in a some-
what lower and more mechanical sense. These ob-
jects which have been brought forward and made
by the hands of working men in this exhibition are
theirs in a much higher sense than this, because
they not simply come from the ',hands of working
men, but they come from their heads also. Theirs
are not only the hands that made them,

ut theirs are also the minds that have conceived

them—that have invented them ; and every one
of the objects which have been- exhibited there
to-day combine both the work of the heads and of
the hands of working-men. (Cheers.) They there-

fore, in a higher sense than the other objects to
which I have referred, may be said to belong to the
working men, and to have come from them. I could
not help being struck by the large comparative de-
velopment which is given in the exhibition to two
great branches of human inquiry. The first is natural
science, and the second is those abstract sciences
which are applied principally to mechanical inven-
tion. Those I think are undoubtedly more fully
represented than any other things in the Exhibition
which we have opened to-day, and I can understand
how these two great departments of inquiry should

have had special attractions for the working men.
As regards the natural sciences, I think it is im-
possible not to feel that in the hurry and bustle of
our daily life it is an immense refreshment to have
our minds brought face to face with the light of
nature. There is something in the science, and
in the sweetness, and in the secrecy of her processes,
something also in the grandeur and magnificence
of her, results which constitute an abiding
refreshment to the human mind. It may be
true, as it has been said on very high autho-
rity, that even the face of nature reflects something
of the unhappiness which has been cast upon our
race, but I think it is true that in the main the face
of nature is a face of happiness and of peace.
(Cheers.) And I conceive that Wordsworth has

really touched in a single line upon the real secret
of the power which is exerted over us by the natu-
tural sciences, when he has referred to nature as
" Abodes in which self-disturbance bath no part."

(Applause.) But then, gentlemen; with regard to
the i
great department, which is so well—l
might
so magnificently, as it is--exhibited, I
itother
say
mean the department of mechanical invention—that
also is one of the greatest and most fruitful depart-
ments of
Why, the world is one
great storehouse inquiry.
mechanical invention. Our
of
verybodi natural
bodies—these frames, of which it is said they
are fearfully and wonderfully made—they are speci-
mens of supreme mechanical invention. (Cheers.)
And I think that the study of mechanical invention
has a great charm in this respect also that it gives
us an immense sense of power, and yet a sense of
power which, in my opinon, can never tend to pride ;
but should always be, and very generally, is con-
nected with true humility of mind ; because we feel
on the one hand the inexorable natural laws which
we have to deal with—we feel, on the other hand,
that by skill, by steady and by careful fitting of
means to ends, we can make those very laws, ap-
parently so involved and so inexorable, the subtle
instruments of our own purposes and of our own
iiltentiioolili thes.(Cheers.) It is not, however, my inten-
tion ivpresentoccasion to follow out this train
of thought. It is one, indeed, on which volumes
might be spoken and volumes might be written ; but
lof acul-Ln:kwinleddge that, after all, the proper study
is man ; and I trust I shall not be
thought to be wasting the time of this great meeting
if I direct your attention rather to some of those
great social questions which are so deeply interest-
ing to us all, on which we have all so much to
learn, and in which I believe we have all much to