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

companied by the Lord Provost, appeared on the
platform, and was received with loud and con-

tinuous cheering.
The LORD PROVOST, in presenting the freedom of
the city to the right hon. gentleman, referred to the
distinguished services which Mr. G 1 Ldstone had ren-
dered to the country, and the important changes
which he had effected in our financial system for
the relief of our home trade and manufactures.
An address having been read by the Town Clerk,
the freedom of the city, inclosed in a massive gold
box, was presented by the Lord Provost to the right
hon. gentleman, who, on receiving it, warmly shook
hands with the chief magistrate, and then turned to

address the.meeting, by whom he was received with
loud and long continued cheering. The audience
rose to greet him, and for some moments there
was a complete:ovation, the ladies in: the gallery
waving their handkerchiefs, and the gentlemen their
hats. Silence having at length been restored,
Mr. GLADSTONE said—l need hardly tell you
that it is with the liveliest and deepest feelings of
satisfaction that I accept from your hands, my lord,
the gift you have been pleased to present to me, to
be preserved, I hope, for many long years among
the records and the treasures of myfamily. (Cheers.)
I have no doubt, indeed I feel too well assured that
a critical judgment might find ample scope for re-
mark upon the too flattering terms in which you
have been pleased to advert to my public conduct,
but still I presume to say that such acknowledg-
ments as you are pleased to make on occasions like
the present of the feeble and humble efforts of any
individual to render services to his country are the
choicest rewards that we can receive for the past,
and are the greatest encouragements and incentives,
the greatest and most powerful aids for the future.
(Cheers.) But such occasions lead us to review the
position in which we stand, and to reflect upon that
which has been and that which is to be ; and per-
haps it might at first sight appear strange if upon
an occasion so joyous, when I have received at your
hands an honour so deeply valued, I confess to you
that a powerful, perhaps a predominant feeling in
my mind at the present juncture is a feeling of
solitariness in the struggles and in the career of
public life. (Hear, hear.) The Provost has alluded
briefly, but touchingly and justly alluded to the loss
we have just sustained, and has intimated to you
that the covenant which brings me before you was a
covenant concluded before that loss had taken place;
but indeed the retrospect of the last five years is in
this regard a touching and melancholy retrospect.
Sad, numerous, and wide have been the blanks which
death has made in the ranks of our public men,
and not alone of our official public men, for many
in this country is the public man, many is the
statesman who renders true and vital service to the
land, but who has never touched a public salary.
(Cheers.) Within these five years we have lost him
whom I must name as the most illustrious in his
position and his office—the beloved husband of our
Queen, revered, admired, loved by all classes of the
community, and one whose departure from this
mortal home has inflicted on the Sovereign so dear
to our hearts a loss that never on this side the grave
can be repaired. (Hear, hear.) I pass from the
Prince Consort to another name, widely, indeed,
separated from him in social rank, but yet a name
which is great at this moment in the esteem of the
country, and which will be for ever great in its
annals—l mean the name of Richard Cobden
(loud cheers)—so simple, so true, so brave, and so
far seeing a man, who knew how to associate him-
self at their very root with the deep interests of the
community in which he lived, and to whom it was
given to achieve, through the moral force of reason
and persuasion, numerous triumphs that have made
his name immortal. (Cheers.) But if I look to the
ranks of official life, perhaps it may cause even sur-
prise, though we know that our losses have been
heavy, when I say that my own recolle,ction supplies
me with the names of no less than 17 persons who
have died within the last five years, and whose duty
and privilege it was to advise the Sovereign as mem-
bers of the Government of this country. (Hear, hear.)
As to the last of these mon, the distinguished man
whose loss at this moment the whole community
in every class and in every corner of the land
deeply and sincerely deplores, we have this
consolation—that it had pleased the Almighty to
afford him strength and courage which carried him
to a ripe old age in the active service of his coun-
try. (Hear, hear.) It has not been so with all.
It has been my lot to follow to the grave several
of those distinguished men who have been called
away from the scene of their honourable labours—not,
indeed, before they had acquired the esteem and
confidence of the country, but still at a period when
the minds and expectations of their fellow-country-
men were fondly fixed upon the thought of what
they might yet achieve for the public good. Two
of your own countrymen, Lord Elgin and Lord
Dalhousie, Lord Canning, Lord Herbert, Sir Geo.
Cornewall Lewis, and the Duke of Newcastle, by
some singular dispensation of Providence, have been
swept away in the full maturity of their faculties
and in the early stages of middle life—a body of
men strong enough of themselves in all the gifts of
wisdom and of knowledge, of experience and of elo-
quence, to have equipped a Cabinet for the service
of the country. (Cheers.) And therefore, my lord,
when I look back upon the years that have passed,
though they have been joyful years in many re-
spects, because they have been years in which the
Parliament of this country has earned fresh and
numerous titles to the augmented confidence of its
citizens, they are also mournful in that I seem to
see the long procession of the figures of the dead,
and I feel that those who are left behind are in one
sense solitary upon the stage of public life. (Cheers.)
But, my Lord Provost, it is characteristic of this
country that her people have been formed for many
generations in those habits of thought and action
which belong to regulated freedom, and one happy
and blessed result of that description of public edu-
cation is that the country ceases to be dependent for
its welfare upon this man or upon that. There never
has yet been in the history of the world a nation
truly free—l mean a nation that is free not only in
laws and institutions but in thoughts and acts—there
has never been a nation in this sense possessed of
freedom, and which has likewise had large and
spreading and valuable interests, which has found
a want of men to defend them. Nor, my Lord Pro-
vost, I am thankful to say, have we yet been reduced
to this extremity, and I trust that I am not going
beyond the liberty of an occasion such as this when,
standing before you at a moment of such public in-
terest, I venture to express my confidence personally
in the state of the Government and the country.
Her Majesty, well aware of the heavy loss which we
have sustained, and wisely exercising her high pre-
rogative, has chosen from among the statesmen of
the country Earl Russell to fill the place of Prime
Minister. (Loud cheers.) I know well the inclina-
tion of those whom I am addressing, and also of the
whole community, to trust more to the evidence of
eeL)
Latta than to that of words, which may be idle and
ydeoluust
ihvaet—t 1(11 le
name (hear, a lia
of r --ordanßd
presumeßussell
Issell is in
itsli
toosaay
pledge
and a promise to a
people. (Cheers.) A man who
fought for British liberty, for
our institutions, and
for our laws, but with a view to the
of those laws, who has fought
on a hundred fields
for their improvement, is not_ likely
now, when in
his 73d honourable year, to unlearn the lesson of his
whole life, to change the direction of his career, and
to forfeit the inheritance which he has secured in the
hearts and memories of his countrymen. (Cheers.)
Therefore, my Lord Provost, I venture to think that
the country has reasonable assurance in the name of
the person who has for the second time assumed the
responsibility of guiding the councils of a Crown,
with the aid of many experienced and distinguished
persons whom I am happy to call my colleagues—l
therefore hope that the country has reasonable as-
surance that the same wise and enlightened spirit
which has for the last 30 or 35 years distinguished
in the main the policy of British legislation and the
conduct of the Executive Government will still con-
tinue to be exhibited by those who will have the re-
sponsibility and direction of public affairs. My
Lord Provost, if we look to the acts of the period
through which we have been
passing, they are in-
deed too numerous to allow of fre erence in detail.
The acts of legislation and of government in which
my share has been, if earnest, yet secondary--
those acts of legislation and government have

embraced almost every subject that can be of inte-
rest to a free and civilised community. In the period
which our own recollection comprehends we have
seen the popular franchise wisely and temperately,
yet boldly, enlarged ; we have seen the education of
the people immensely extended, with, at the same
time, all due regard to the sanctity and integrity of
religion on the one hand, and to the feelings of pri-
vate conscience on the other—(hear, hear)—we have
seen religious disabilities, for the most part, swept
away ; we have seen questions of social policy deeply
interesting and deeply momentous asserting from
year to year greater and still greater importance ;
we have seen, as I have said, the principle on which
and the method by which taxes are taken from the
people largely reconsidered and revised ; and we
have seen all these changes made with a view to the
promotion of one great end—the freedom of inter-
course not only among the various members of our
own community, but also among the various mem-
bers of the great human family, the nations of the
world. (Cheers.) Well, my Lord Provost, in my
prime I have taken part in the struggles of political
parties, and it may be my lot to continue to bear a
share in them, and I will not disavow nor under-
value the use of party combinations. It is by means
of party combinations as a general rule, and by those
means alone, that the matured convictions of expe-
rience can find the final and distinctive expression
in the form of laws and institutions ; but yet party
is only an instrument ; it is an instrument for ends
higher than itself, and those ends are the strength,
the welfare, and the prosperity of our country.
(Cheers.) We may now presume to say that it is the
peculiar felicity of our time that the good of each to
the country is not now to be regarded as it was in
old times, as something distinct from the good of the
rest of mankind ; but, on the contrary, when we la-
bour for the advancement of our countrymen we la-
bour likewise for the advantage of the whole world.
(Cheers.) Therefore, my Lord Provost, when I
look back on the numberless changes in these various
chapters of legislative and constitutional improve-
ment, I confess that the most fertile result of all—
although I have no desire to disparage the others,
for they are intimately woven together, as it were,
with a silver cord—the most fertile result probably
is that which I may describe in the well-known
familiar and beloved words—the promotion of free
trade. (Cheers.) It is quite unnecessary before
this audience—l may venture to say, it is unneces-
sary before any audience of my countrymen—to
dwell at this period of our experience upon the
material benefits that have resulted from free trade,
upon the enormous augmentation of national power
which it has produced, or even upon the increased
concord which it has tended so strongly to promote
throughout the various sections of the community.
But it is the characteristic of the system which we
so denominate, that while it comes forward with
homely pretensions and professes, in the first in-
stance, to address itself mainly to questions of
material and financial interests, yet, in point of
fact, it is fraught and charged throughout with im-
mense masses of moral, social, and political results.
(Cheers.) I will not now speak to the very large
measure of those results which are domestic, but I
would ask you to consider with me for a few
moments the effect of the system of unrestricted
intercourse upon the happiness of the human family
at large. Now, as far as that happiness is connected
with the movements of nations, war has been its
great implement. And what have been the great
causes of wars ? They do not come upon the world
by an inevitable necessity or through a providential
visitation. They are not to be compared with pes-
tilences and famines, even ; in that respect, though
we have learnt, and justly learnt, that much of
what we have been accustomed to call Providential
visitation is owing to our neglect of the wise and
prudent means which man ought to find in the just
exercise of his faculties for the avoidance of cala-
mity ; but with respect to wars, they are the direct
and universal consequence of the unrestricted, too
commonly of the unbridled, passions and lusts of
men. If we go back to a very early period of
society we find a state of things in which, as be-
tween one individual and another, no law obtained
—a state of things in which the first idea almost of
those who desired to better their condition was
simply to better it by the abstraction of their neigh-
bour's property. (Laughter.) In the early periods
of society piracy and unrestrained freebooters among
individuals were what wars, for the most part, have
been in the more advanced periods of human his-
tory. Why, what is the case with a war ? It is a
case in which both cannot be right, but in which
both may be wrong. (Laughter and applause.) I
believe if the impartiality of the historian surveys a
very large proportion of the wars that have deso-
lated the world—some, indeed, there may be, and
undoubtedly there have been, in which the arm of
valour has been raised simply for the cause of free-
dom and justice—that the most of them will be
found to belong to that less satisfactory category
in which folly, passion, greediness, on both sides,
have led to effects which afterwards, when too late,
have been so much deplored. We have had in the
history of the world religious wars. The period of
these wars I trust we have now outlived. lam not
at all sure that there was not quite as much to be
said for them as for a great many other wars which
have been recorded in the page of history. The
same folly which led to the one led in another
form to the other. We have had dynastic
wars, wars of succession, in which for long periods
of years the heads of rival families have fought
over the bleeding persons of their people to deter-
mine who should govern them. I trust we have
outlived one period of wars of that class. Another
class of wars, of a more dangerous and yet
a more extensive description, have been territorial
war. No doubt it is a very natural, though it is a
very dangerous and a very culpable sentiment,which
leads nations to desire their neighbours' property,
and I am sorry to think that we have had examples
—perhaps we have an example even at this moment
before our eyes—to show that even in the most
civilised parts of the world, even in the midst of the
oldest civilisation upon the continent of Europe,
that thirst for territorial acquisition is not yet ex-
tinct. (Cheers.) But I wish to call your attention
to a peculiar form in which during the latter part
of human history this thirst for territorial acqui-
sition became an extensive cause of bloodshed.
It was when the colonising power took possession
of the European nations. It seems that the world
was not wide enough for them. One would have
thought, upon overlooking the broad places of the
earth, and thinking how small a portion of them is
even now profitably occupied, and how much smaller
a portion of them a century or two centuries ago—
one would have thought there would have been
ample space for all to go and help themselves ; but,
notwithstanding this, we found it necessary, in the
business of planting colonies, to make those colonies
the cause of bloody conflicts with our neighbours ;
and there was at the bottom of that policy this old
lust of territorial aggrandisement. When the state
cf things in Europe had become so far settled that
that lust could not be as freely indulged in as it
might in barbarous times, we then carried our ar-
maments and our passions across the Atlantic, and
we fought upon American and other distant soilsfor
the extension of our territory. That was one of the
most dangerous and plausible, in my opinion, of all
human errors ; it was one to which a great portion
of the wars of the last century was due; but had our
forefathers then known, as we now know, the bless-
ings of free commercial intercourse, all that blood-
shed would have been spared. (Cheers.) For what
was the dominant idea that governed this policy ?
It was this, that colonising, indeed, was a great
function of European nations, but the purpose of
that colonisation was to reap the profits of extensive
trade with the colonies which were founded (hear),
and consequently it was not the error of one nation
or of another—it was the error of all nations alike.
It was the error of Spain in Mexico, it was the error
of Portugal in Brazil, it was the error of France in
Canada and Louisiana, it was the error of England
in her colonies in the West Indies and her posses-
sions in the East ; and the whole idea of colonisa-
tion, all the benefits of colonisation, were summed
up in this, that when you had planted a colony on
the other side of the ocean, you were to allow that
colony to trade exclusively and solely with your-
selves. (Hear.) But from that doctrine flowed im-
mediately all those miserable wars, because if people
believed, as they then believed, that the trade with

colonies must, in order to be beneficial, necessarily
be exclusive, it followed that at once there arose in
the mind of each country a desire to be possessed of
the colonies of other countries in order to secure the
extension of this exclusive trade. In fact, my Lord
Provost, I may say such was the perversity of the
misguided ingenuity of man that during the period
to which I refer he made commerce itself, which
ought to be the bond and link of the human race,
the cause of war and bloodshed, and wars were jus-
tified both here and elsewhere—justified when they
were begun, and gloried in when they had ended—
upon the ground that their object and effect had
been to obtain from some other nation a colony
which previously had been theirs, but which now
was ours, and which in our folly we regarded as the
sole means of extending the intercourse and the in-
dustry of our countrymen. (Hear, hear.) Well, now
my Lord Provost, that was a most dangerous form
of error, and for the very reason that it seemed to
abandon the old doctrine of the unrestricted devas-
tation of the world, and to contemplate a peaceful
end ; but I am thankful to say that we have entirely
escaped from that delusion. It may be that we do
not wisely when we boast ourselves over our fa-
thers. The probability is that as their errors crept
in unperceived upon them they did not know their
full responsibility ; so other errors in directions
as yet undetected may be creeping upon us. Mo-
desty bids us in our comparison, whether with other
ages or with other countries, to be thankful—atleast
we ought to be—for the downfall of every form
of error, and determined we ought to be that nothing
shall be done by us to give countenance to its re-
vival, but that we will endeavour to assist those less
fortunate than ourselves in emancipating themselves
from the like delusions. I need not say that as re-
spects our colonies they have ceased to be, I would
almost venture to say a possible—at any rate they
have ceased to be a probable—cause of war, for now
we believe that the greatness of our country is best
promoted in its relations with our colonies by allow-
ing them freely and largely to enjoy every privilege
that we possess ourselves ; and so far from grudging
it, if we find that there are plenty of American ships
trading with Calcutta, we rejoice in it, because it
contributes to the wealth and prosperity of our
Indian empire, and we are perfeetly assured that the
more that wealth and prosperity are promoted the
larger will be the share of it accruing to ourselves
through the legitimate operation of the principles of
trade. (Cheers.) But the beneficial influence of free
trading intercourse is far wider than this. You stated
that a treaty had been made with France, and cer-
tainly a treaty with France is even in itself a mea-
sure of no small consequence ; but that which gives
to a measure of the kind its highest value is its ten.
dency to produce beneficial imitations in other quar-
ters ; it is the influence which is given to the cause
of freedom of trade by the example held out by the
two most powerful nations of Europe ; it is the fact
that in concluding that treaty we did not give to one
a privilege which was withheld from another, and
that our treaty with France was, in effect, a treaty
with the world. (Cheers.) And what are the moral
consequences which engagements of this kind carry
in their train ? I know there is no part of the pro-
vidential government of the world which tends
more deeply to impress the mind with a sense of the
profound wisdom and boundless benevolence of the
Almighty than when we observe how truly and how
universally great effects spring from smalkcauses, and
high effects from causes which appear to have been
mean. Now, we have said that, with respect to
freedom of commercial intercourse, reduction of
tariffs, abolition of duties, and readjustment of com-
mercial laws, that these are things which in the first
instance touch material interests, and there are some
men so widely mistaken as to suppose that they
touch material interests alone. There are some
men, aye, and high-minded men, too, who would
bid you beware of such things lest they should lead
simply to the worship of Mammon. Now, the
worship of Mammon is dangerous to us all, but, as
far as regards the great masses—the more numer-
ous masses of every community—that portion of the
human family which at present has not much to
spare in respect to the e,ssentialslof raiment, of food,
and of lodging—that portion of the human family
has hardly yet reached the province in which the
worship of Mammon is wont to be dreaded—(laugh-
ter and cheers)—but that is a subject for the private
conscience and a subject of the greatest importance.
There is no doubt that an infinity of moral danger
surrounds a state of things in which multitudes of
men find themselves rapidly possessed of great for-
tunes and entirely changing their social position. I
do not deny that at the proper time and in the pro-
per place it is a subject for the most solemn con-
sideration ; but I don't think it the duty of Parli-
ment to withhold laws which are good from any
fear of their leading to the worship of Mammon.
That is an argument which if good in one case
would be argued with equal force against all bless-
ings of Providence, for what is more dangerous to
the human soul than those blessings of Providence
when their great Author is forgotten ? ,(Cheers.)
But, I say it is marvellous to see how the Almighty
makes provision through the satisfaction of our
lower wants and appetites for the attainment
of higher aims, and the relations of business are
doubtless founded upon pecuniary profits, as are
also the relations of the tradesmen and custo-
mers ; yet what is their immediate aim ? The
customer wants to be supplied wherever those
supplies are best and cheapest, while the trades-
man seeks to dispose of them wherever they are
dearest. What are the relations between the employer
and employed ? The master wishes to produce as
cheaply as he can, and the workman wishes to get the
best wages he can. The landlord obtains the highest
rent he can safely ask, and the tenant obtains his
farm as cheaply as he can; and such is the rule that
runs through all these pecuniary relations of life.
Human beings on the two sides of the water are com-
ing to know one another better, and to esteem one
another more ; they are beginning to be acquainted
with one another's common interest and feeling, and
to unlearn the prejudices which make us refuse to
give to other nations and peoples in distant lands
credit for being governed by the same motives and
principle as ourselves. We may say that labelled on
all those parcels of goods there is a spark of kindly
feeling from one country to the other, and the ship
revolving between those lands is like the shuttle upon
a loom weaving the web of concord between the na-
tions of the earth. (Loud cheers.) Therefore I feel
that that which may be in its first and in its outer
aspect a merely secular work, is in point of fact a
work full of moral purpose, and those who havegiven
themselves to it, either in times when the system of
free trade has become prosperous or in earlier times
before those principles were accepted as they now
are, could easily afford to bear the reproach that they
were promoting the worship of Mammon, or that
they were conversant only with the exterior and in-
ferior interests of men. In all cases it is the quiet,
unassuming prosecution of daily duty by which we
best fulfil the purpose to which the Almighty has
appointed us, and the humble task, as it may appear,
of industry and of commerce, contemplating in the
first instance little more than the necessities and the
augmentation of our comforts, has in it nothing
that prevents its being pursued in a spirit of devo-
tion to higher interests ; and if it is honestly and
well pursued I believe that it tends with a power
quiet and silent, indeed, like the power of your
vast machines, but at the same time manifold and
resistless, to the mitigation of the woes and sor-
rows that afflict humanity, and to the accelera-
tion of better times for the children of our
race. (Cheers.) Wars, my Lord Provost, are not
to be put thwn by philosophical nor, I believe, even
exclusively religious argument. The deepest pre-
judices of man, and the greatest social evils are only
supplanted and undermined by causes of silent
operation ; and I must say that, for my own part, I
am given to dwell upon the thought that the silent
and tranquil operations of these causes in connexion
with the vast industry of this country constitute for
us not only a promise of stability and material
power, but likewise a mission that has been placed
in our hands, that in being benefactors to ourselves
we may also hope to be benefactors to the world.
(Cheers.) And, Sir, I trust and I may say I feel
well convinced that the ideas upon which the whole
of these movements depend are well rooted in this
country. Such prejudices as may remain adverse to
freedom of trade in any of the multiform develop-
ments arc, I hope and believe, gradually fading

away. It is noteasy 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 countrymust 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 theExchange,where he
was received enthusiastically by an immense throng
within and without the walls of the building.

In tho evening Mr. Gladstone was entertained at a
priv.te 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. Daiglish, 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 be ho 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 th e
warmest enthusiasm, the audience rising en masse and
greeting him with vociferous cheering and the waving of
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 1
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 he happens to be detected in a particular fault, forth-
with has laid upon him all the blame that is duo 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 bo
so regarded in your minds as if I wore 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, tri e d, and trusted representative—(cheers)—on behalf of
the heads of departments; and I beg 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.) I am a follow-
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 mon, 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 the century which has seen his position
raised, his circumstances improved, new means organised
for his benefit, new prospects opened for the future, and he
has before him—l mean not the individual, but the class—
he has before him a prospect which, as Itrust, 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 bo 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 groat 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. I do 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 the 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 bo done, with certain
exceptions which I hope will soon disappear, and that we
shall be thankful for the escape which we have had, 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 over occupy a very largo share
of his legitimate cares—anxieties, I mean, in regard to
his access 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 duo to the Exchequer, and applied to meeting
the necessities of the State ; more frequently and more mks-

chievously in that unhappy and altogether illegitimate mode
of artificially enhancing the price of articles raised at home
by taxes imposed upon foreign imports, not for the purpose
of feeding the public Exchequer, but for the purpose of
adding to the price to be paid to the home producer, while
at that time, gentlemen, there was hardly any single article
of importance to the labouring man which was not sub-
jected to an enhancement of price ; but with great enhance-
ment by the operation of that system the importation of
meat from abroad was prohibited, each was subjected to. a
very high duty; foreign fruits were subjected to very high
duties ; the elements of clothing, in some important con-
stituents, were subjected to duty; all the materials of house
dwellings were subjected to duty—l do not speak of stone,
in which Scotland happily abounds—but I believe that no
philosopher ever has been ingenious enough, or bold
enough, to tax the stones of which your houses are con-
structed ; but the Englishman who owes his dwelling to
the useful and homely material of brick, had a very diffe-
rent story to tell, and the bricks could not be put into the
wall of his house without having first paid a high duty to
the excise. Tho wood, however, which, next to stone and
brick, was the most important constituent of dwellings, was
subjected to an immense duty, imposed more for the pur-
peso of protection than revenue, though partly for that,
too ; even iron, the production of which is so eminently
characteristic of this country, and even foreign iron was
not allowed to come into the country without a protective
duty imposed to enhance its price, though I do not believe
or know that it was effectual for the purpose of enhancing
its price. On glass, that essential condition of cleanliness,
neatness, and comfort in the dwelling of any man—glass
was enormously enhanced in price ; not so much, however,
by protective duty, though partially also by that, but also
in a groat degree by the operation of the system of excise.
Well, now the protective duties are gone, and the duties,
on what may strictly be called the necessaries of life,
with few exceptions, are gone also; there is no duty
upon bricks, and there is now no duty upon glass. There
is no duty upon iron; the constituents of your dwellings
are free, the constituents of clothing are absolutely free,
and not a shilling in any form is levied upon them
for the purpose of augmenting the revenues of the
State; the broad which you consume is free, the meat
which you eat is entirely and absolutely free, and you have
a command of the markets of the world ; the cheese, butter,
eggs, fresh fruit, all those articles which can fairly be de-
scribed as necessaries of life, are free from taxation, and of
the tax-gatherer in any form or shape whatever. (Cheers.)
If we pass on from necessaries of life to the comforts of life,
then, at any rate, a considerable progress has been made;
the duty on sugar—one of the most essential and valuable
comforts—may now be stated at ld. per lb. Twenty years
ago the duty in its direct operation on the revenue was not
loss than 2jd. or 3d per lb., and the price was further en-
hanced by the operation of a protective system—so that,
perhaps, I would not be far wrong if I were to say that, on
the whole, the tax upon the sugar which you consume, and
consume, I hope, pretty largely— (cheers)—for that is my
interest—(laughter and cheers)—has been diminished from
probably not less than 3d. to 4d. per lb. to a rate of about
Id. per lb. That is a great progress made. (Cheers.) The
other great and capital article, which may be said to con-
stitute a comfort all but essential for the masses of the
community, is the article of tea. (Cheers.) Five and thirty
years ago, I think, the average duty paid on tea in this
country was about 4s. per lb. ; it is now reduced to 6d.
(Cheers.) That also indicates considerable progress. There
are, gentlemen, those who are so sanguine as to believe
that the whole of those duties may be removed, and that all
the comforts as well as the necessaries of life may be quite
absolutely free. (Hear, hear.) I have no doubt at all that
consummation would be extremely desirable (laughter)—
but I do not come here to flatter or mislead—(hear, hear)
—and I am bound to say that whether my great grandchild
may or may not live to see that consummation arrive, I
have not the smallest expectation of seeing it myself.
(Hear, hear.) There is another description of taxation,
gentlemen, which has undergone, on the whole, no reduc-
tion, and in some cases even an increase, and that ii the
tax upon what I may call stimulants. (Laughter and
cheers.) Under the description of stimulants I include
spirits, beer, wine, and tobacco ; and, gentlemen, with re-
spect to that class of article, it certainly is not, I think,
my own business, who do not deny to myself the use of
them, to come here and preach among you a high and as-
cetic doctrine. (Hear.) And I will venture to say, particu-
larly in respect to tobacco, that as regards the mass of the
community there is no sort of evil or mischief of a serious
kind, at least so far as my experience and knowledge goes,
to be traced to its use—(cheers and laughter)—but I do not
venture to say that the exigencies of the country will per-
mit us to look forward to a very great diminution in that
class of taxation which is laid upon what I have termed
stimulants ; and I think that so long as these exigencies
continue to be what they aro, and so long as we have not
found any more satisfactory method of getting by direct
process at the pockets of the taxpayers, it will be necessary
for us to continue to raise money, I doubt, upon the stimu-
lants that are used by the population at large. However,
gentlemen, on the whole this review, which is perhaps of
a homely character, presents to us satisfactory features; it
shows that at all events we get our fee from the poverty of
the country as well as the magnificence of the State—it
shows that the first wants of the human being, that are ne-
cessary for existence, that are necessary for decency, go free
untaxed. (Hear.) It shows that the first comforts of the
people, though they are not untaxed, are subject to taxes
far more moderate than any that have been levied in former
times, and likewise, I trust, that we may venture to believe
that beneficial process which has operated those diminu-
tions in the burdens of the country have not yet reached
the farthest point to which they may be carried. (Cheers.)
About 50 or 55 years ago the taxation of the country
amounted to £3 10s. per head. Immediately after the ter-
mination of the great war it fell considerably, and was
brought down perhaps as low as £2 103 ; it is now very
little over £2. But it would not be a fair statement of the
case wore that 10s. looked upon as the whole advantage
reaped by the community, because an increase, a just and
necessary increase, has taken place in the expenditure of the
country. (Cheers.) You know perfectly well, and I re-
joice that it is known perfectly well, that the wages of al-
most all kinds of labour have particularly increased.
(Applause.) If the value of labour has increased to the in-
dividual employer it follows that it has rendered an in-
crease of pay to the Government officials necessary, and
that therefore the soldier, the civil servant of all descrip-
tions, is much better paid
_now and much better treated
now than in former times. (Hear, hear, and applause.)
That increase has increased the amount of taxation; but it
is an increase, so long as the rate of pay to the civil servant,
the soldier, and to the sailor is raised, and supposing justice
with economy is practised, which no man in this vast assem-
blage will for one moment grudge. (Cheers.) That there
is another way,a far more effective way, of judging how we
now stand compared with the manner we stood forty or
fifty years ago, is to consider what had been at the re-
spective periods the aggregate income of the country, and
to consider how much of it has been taken away by the
Government for the purpose of meeting the wants of the
public service. Now, as well as I can venture to make a
computation upon this subject, I will say that fifty years
ago, out of every £6 of private income or assets of all
classes taken together, £1 was taken away by Government
for the purposes of the Exchequer, and that now, on the
contrary, instead of taking £1 in every £6, which cannot
be said to bo required for attaining the same purposes, but
in a more extended and efficient manner, £1 in every £9
in the country is taken. Well, gentlemen, in that same
period we have seen an extension of the political franchise
of the community in England ; indeed, it does not appear
to be very clear whether the proportion of working men
who are now in possession of the suffrage is or is not greatly
larger, or even, indeed, whether it is larger at all, than it
was forty years ago, before the time of the Reform Bill.
(Hear, hear.) But in Scotland, at any rate, no such com-
parison has been drawn. That proportion of the working
classes which has been enfranchised has been a sheer addition
to the constituency; for before the Reform Bill I apprehend
there was no such thing as working men in Scotland who had
the capacity, either in town or country, of giving a vote for
their representatives in Parliament. (Cheers.) And, gen-
tlemen, without attempting to enter into the details, I will
venture also to express the hope which I have expressed with
regard to taxation, that on this point also we have not arrived
at the final term of possible improvement; but on the contrary
that the day may not be far distant when we may be per-
mitted to indulge the expectation of witnessing a further
progress in the direction of an extension of the suffrage.
(Cheers.) Another change, gentlemen, has taken place, of
which I for one scarcely know how to state the importance.
I mean the change that has been effected with regard to the
conveying into the houses of the community what may be
termed political information by the emancipation of the
Press. (Cheers.) The omanicipation and cheapening of
the periodical Press have constituted in themselves a new
era in the existence of the working men of this country.
I do not think it is necessary for us to find fault or pass a
severe judgment on the more restricted system that pre-
vailed before. The truth is that this method of conveying
information periodically upon public affairs to the various
classes of the community is one of the advances, one of
the real advances, effected by modern civilisation.
(Cheers.) The newspapers altogether in the history of the
human race are but as a thing of yesterday. When they
began, their circulation was and long continued to be
limited. Gradually it spread from class to class; they were
the luxury of the very rich, then they became the enjoy-
ment of the middle class, and now, continually widening
the circle of their benefits, they have become the privilege
and accessible enjoyment, if one may venture to say so, of
every member of the community. (Cheers.) No change,
I believe, of a more beneficial character has been carried
out for many years—nothing that has on the one side
done more to convey satisfactorily to the public a large
amount of political information, together with all other in-
formation of general and public interest now constantly
supplied at the lowest charge, has done more by its reci-
procal action to strengthen the institutions of the country,
by the promotion of contentment and by generating a
strong sense of union and mutual goodwill in the various
classes of the community. (Applause.) Well, gentlemen, I
need not remind you how much has been done of late years
for the promotion of public education. Reference may indeed
still be made to that subject as one in which much remains
to be done. Of that lam fully aware : it must continue to
bo the subject of most serious anxiety to the public men
of gnsiand to consider how a houotcial MOYeraent ill that

direction can be continued and extended until we are able
to say that, as now the necessaries of life for the purposes
of bodily sustenance are supplied, so the necessaries of life
for the primary purpose of mental cultivation shall be at
the command of every member of the community. (Cheers)
Groat progress, however, has already been made, and more
may be hoped for. Well, gentlemen, another importenti
most important department of modern legislation, has boll
beneficent and prudent—the limited and guarded interfer-
ence which the legislature has attempted with reference to_
protecting against undue and exhausting labour the feeble
and the young. (Cheers.) There was at one time
chance that by a narrow and one-sided view of the
prin-
ciples of political economy we might have overlooked
what was justly due to the principles of a higher kind,
those of humanity, philanthropy, and justice ; or rather
there was a danger that we might have forgotten for I‘..
moment that there wore in the subject two sets of prin?l,
pies, which, though they appeared to be at variance carte
each other, are essentially in accordance one with the
other. We have seen, however, beneficial restraints .
posed without use of capital, and in the application of
labour as regards the feeble portion of the community andir,
the young ; and this likewise may be regarded, I thle d
as no unimportant chapter in the history of a true en
solid social progress. I confess lam one of those °_
believe that a very small part of what Government can au
for the people is to be done by positive and coercive raga"
lation. By far the largest portion of the beneficial act?:
of the State is to be found in the removal of utlWl
restraints, and in offering opportunities of which the free
will of the citizen may or may not avail itself as 14e 11:1
sea te
think proper. We have, therefore, attempted to do
thing in that direction, and my hon. friend has allude to
two measures in which it has been my happy fortune ,
take an interest and to bear a share—the organisation of
the Post-office savings banks, and the bill for facilitatilfiogr
the sale of annuities and the granting of life a,ssuratleee to
small sums. (Cheers.) These are measures which apps'
me to be sound in principle. They do not in any via,' int:try
fere with the labouring man's liberty of choice, orihellbe'-do
of choice enjoyed by any one else. If ho thinks he can nt
better with his money than to carry it to the Goverlizet,
savings bank, by all means let him do better with it. 71
that is done is done with a very moderate, nay a Yer/Lo„d
rate of interest ; a perfect security is offered, cornono
with the greatest possible convenience. The attempt on
is to give him information so full and so clear that he caall„:
u ;possibly be ignorant of the precise terms on which the
vernmenik holds his money, and likewise to put hire
position in which he can reclaim that money whenever
pleases, and wherever he pleases. Now that is the whc'tobo
secret of Post Office saving banks, and nothing can
more remarkable than the manner in which they 113,f
answered a real public exigency. I cannot reckon tPro,'
they have been in full work for much more than three Yee of
and yet besides having transacted an immense amour
business, business, and having returned to depositors some n'''": ,„,a
of money, we have got I think in that short period of to
between six and seven millions of the earnings of therc'rto
in our hands—(cheers)—and that in sums beginning fror
is. upwards, and averaging I believe not more than 0'
£l2 in the whole for each depositor. Now, genderaeeii
that is an important piece of modern legislation, becalibibe 0
represents in the first place a very great growth
provident habits of the people, and that is the most eee'Ct
tial and the greatest advantage that can possibly be br°lz
about by any act of legislation in such a province ; , o-
presents also, let me add, and add with satisfaction an
with joy, an increasing confidence on the part of the PeZi
in the Government ; there is no more marked proof of
confidence than when the hard earnings of the industit
the poor are carried for deposit to the hands of the office'
of the State ; and if anything could render the eltetwir
sive action of these banks more signal and satisfaetorie
it is this, that that money has been tendered to the St°ts
~.
a permanent, indeed, but alow rate of interest, during
lied when, upon the whole, from the action of a varlet); yt
causes the 'rate of interest ruling in the money-nleriT,v„b,
large has been extraordinarily and exceptionally '"°
(Cheers.) The other act is founded exactly upon the ler
principle respecting the freedom of choice of every ream of
of the community, holding out no fictitious allureine°,.
10
inducements, not pretending in the slightest degree W
to the labouring man the benefit of one farthing at the
of anybody else—for it is essential and vital to thisnlep*The
that it should contain no oleemosynary element—butetl-
same time offering that kind of security, that kind of eerf
venience which in case they are disposed to the exercise;
providence, and always in case they can find no bettoron,
of investing that which they wish to save, will affordthe7.
the occasion they wish for. (Cheers.) The effect of these
changes has been as marked as it has been beneficial; it
increased loyalty to the throne, respect for the ILI of
union, confidence and concordbetween the several claseeSo
the community; and I know not on what point those WV
Providence has blessed with larger means are now entittlehe
to make any complaint as to the general conduct of
working classes. (Hear.) As to the struggle which i 50.1
volved between capital and labour, as long as it is nionnbe
by each party with a full sense of the rights of each °ther,
by fair and above-board means, and a full allowance to otbe
people of the liberty which they claim for themselvesoo
have no apprehension myself of this kind of competiti
between the capitalist and the labourer. (Cheers.)
have said, speaking in all characters, though unwortlwd?
as a Minister of State and a reprosentetive of law and 6i:
thority, I know nothing of which we have to comPl'is to
you ; but the labouring classes have the great lessen
learn respecting the rights of minorities. That ig
lesson of infinite difficulty; it is a lesson which Yea
men of Glasgow have learned perfectly. (Cheer's the
laughter.) You are accustomed to see in operation all t'it
energy which goes to increase production with the utre°,t
freedom ; but although you have learnt this lesson, Iri"
different portions of the working population of the couetno
are in different circumstances, and have learnt this less 0
differently. I will tell you honestly what I consider
involved in this lesson of respecting the rights ef ,be
minority. I understand, in the first place, that machitterit
is to be introduced wherever manufactures can be bettne
produced by machinery than by human labour. Tlio
or-
natives of Glasgow and of Lancashire would ridicule "j..
man who should attempt to tell them that the stearo-t.
gine and the power-loom, by doing certain operations o'.l.
ter and quicker than human labour, are hostile to the it
interests. But this lesson is not so learnt by every Pcirtrelo
of the community, as to relieve those who feel an Weg.:fi
in the welfare of the working classes from the neca.,„-lie•
of reminding them from time to time that it is a of
take to look on machinery as hostile to the interestebo
labour; but, on the contrary, it is not only benoficiallaa,
tends to raise the condition of the working popills.4o.l.-
But if you are to proscribe ell machinery, tho same ej°
went which leads you to proscribe the steam-engine 112:0
lead you to proscribe steam ploughs ; and if the 6,,y1
plough, the horse plough, nay, even the spade, and Of; )
1"
leave you to grub the ground with your hands. Pet-0i
I aver that at this moment there are some trades in
~-„,3
the labour of women and boys is more or less either lire-60
or proscribed by regulations enforced by men who are
short-sighted as to believe that they are benefiting the/
selves by cutting off sources of employment from the oe;
bers of their families. (Hear, hear.) That is what it core
to. Well, gentlemen, there is another point, andl'ebai
again, I would appeal to you with some confidence, and ; t
ip
is the labour of strangers. I believe there are trades
~ 0
which it is very disagreeable to the workmen of one P;
if the workmen of another place are brought in by the 31'
be
tor. The people of a certain district were not thought tiatiof
very clever at the process of boring coal. What did t'
do ? They introduced some Scotchmen. But the natfa
so to call them, were not altogether pleased with the arri
of these Scotchmen ; and even in some cases e,nonyloec,
letters were written, calling on the Scotchmen to vrit,o
draw, and to the employers, desiring them to dismiss tfhtelle
Scotchmen. These short-sighted people forgot that it tee
Scotchmen, who were the more competent labourers, :tee
withdrawn, probably the result would have been that
yet
district would not have been improved at all. Wilittiewall
be the regulation among workmen that may tend to
the freedom of the individual's choice, that may teo_",„/
interfere with the moral right that every man has to 01-1
hes
his own labour individually into what he thinks the :40
market—l venture to say those regulations are all in Pnor:
ciple unsound ; and I confidently predict that in PrNeo
tion as the working community of this country containo
to advance in every attainment that tends to dignify 11114,
nature, and to raise the people above the condition "
more tool or instrument to that of an intellectual, rstlelitfie
and immortal being, so will all attempts to interfere on of
part of one man with the liberty of another fall more eto
more into disrepute. I admit that it is a much harder le6:10
for the working man to apply these principles fairlf.,,op
fully than for persons in circumstances of abuncl'- iD
Immense progress has been made, and is being nocie'vot
these respects, and all those interferences, if they ar
tea
dead, are about to die ; and the reason why I enw-00
upon such a subject was, that what I desire to see !fall
mecontinual advance of the working community, not "or
in their material circumstances, but likewise in tll:bete
spect and confidence of their fellow-ciiizentt i
ftr
be an apprehension that you cherish separate
terests, disarm that jealousy by your conduct. Iva
doubtedly some portion of the proceedings of the leboptS
ing classes are still open to criticism, namely, the att4relbe
on the part of majorities to interfere with minorities' le'
right hon. gentleman, after a few further observation°,
sumed his seat amidst great cheering.

ligl
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