The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-30 00:00:00

On Saturday evening, the annual dinner of the Stroud
Volunteer Rifle Corps took place in the Subscription-rooms
in that town, the principal guest being the Right Hon. E.
Horsman, M.P., one of the members for the borough, who
had that afternoon given a Whitworth Rifle for competition
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Mr. Honsmale, after some remarks upon the rise ana p'
gress of the volunteer movement, said, now that the move-
ment had attained its present dimensions, and that out of
their own pockets the volunteers have expended between
one and two millions sterling, and that the commission had
stated that they are a powerful auxiliary force to the British
army, constituting a body of nearly 170,000 men, he thought
we should be disappointed if one of the very first steps taken
in the ensuing session was not to give some assistance to the
force upon those points upon which they can give assistance
without destroying the character of volunteers. The volun-
teers have given that time which is of money value, that
zeal which no money can buy, and if the occasion should
come they were ready to give those lives which no money
could purchase or restore. It was not right, therefore,
that a magnanimous or generous nation should treat the
volunteers as if the defence of the nation was their sole con•
cern, and as if the rest of the nation were to reap the ad-
vantage and not to bear any part of the burden. Every
sensible man is a friend of economy. We know that eco-
nomy is in reality only synonymous with efficiency, as par-
simony is the sure mother of waste. But this feeling has
been so prevalent, and has been given such effect to, that we
have in this country at least two comforts with regard to
our expenditure. First, there is no country in the world of
which the taxation, in proportion to its requirements, is so
small as it is in England ; and next, that there is no coun-
try in which taxpayers get money's worth for their money
—that is to say, in which so large a proportion of the revenue
is devoted to public purposes, or so little diverted. While
we are all desirous to promote economy to the utmost, and
reduce our expenditure to the utmost, no one who looks
at the state of the world at present could say that we ought
to impair our efficiency or relax our exertions. As long as
Italy is unsettled (continued the hon. gentleman) there can
be no security for the peace of the world. The French
army is at Rome, where it has no business to be ; and the
French Emperor cannot retain it there without public
scandal, and does not know how to remove it. Many people
foresee that storms which may in the end destroy his dynasty
may arise from the state of Italy,lwith which he is trifling
too long. French writers already see this. One of the many
French writers who are supposed to derive their inspira-
tion from the Emperor has stated, within the last few days, '
that Italy ought to be dismembered in the interests of the
peace of Europe ; and the public journals have been assert-
ing that if there should come public troubles in France, the
best diversion of them would be a foreign war. Then look
at Greece, where there has been a revolution. An offer of
the crown of Greece was made to an English prince, and
European powers expected we should grasp at the prize ;
but we have rejected it. The lonian Islands have always
been a reproach to us as seeking our own aggrandise-
ment, and we have offered to cede them to Greece,
but the other European nations will not have it so. The
Eastern question is still a question of intrigue' and
difficulty, and England is to be compelled to maintain
this protectorate because if she gave it to Greece it would
forward some of these combinations and intrigues in which
the lonian Islands are supposed to be a peril to the peace
of Europe. Then look across the Atlant o. Within the
last few days you have had published despatches by the
United States Foreign Minister. He tells Lord Russell that
a war with America would instantly unite both North and
South, and some of the newspapers recommend Mr. Lincoln
and his Cabinet to send an army to India and to invade
Canada, in order to punish England, the perfidious aristo-
crat, and to restore the Union. There is no man knows
what the Foreign Minister, in his present position, may
not resort to ; but with such menaces sown broadcast,
I for one think that the course of economy still is on
the side of safety, and I would rather have large armaments
unemployed, because other States know we are in a defen-
sible condition, than small armaments and in danger of
going to war, because our weakness may promote attack.
(Hear, hear.) The present moment, above all others, would
convert a man to the principle and practice of economy,
even if he were not so disposed, because the circumstances
of England at this moment are such as must indispose any
man to add one feather to the burdens which the Northern
population have voluntarily taken to themselves. We have
a spectacle new going on which is without a parallel in the
history of the world. (Hear, hear.) You have had sud-
denly cut off the supply of the raw material by which nearly
four millions of our population were sustained in their em-
ployment, and which also enters largely into the arrange-
ments, commercial and financial, of every class of the com-
munity, and upon which even the stability and solvency of
our revenue are dependent. You have had the supply cut
off in a moment, and a crisis brought upon England such as
no man six months ago could have contemplated without
alarm. England, the most powerful maritime nation in the
world, had only to say the word, and the blockade would
have ceased. It was a blockade, on the testimony of our
highest legal authorities, so ineffective as to be illegal, and
was not entitled to the respect of foreign powers. We had
therefore nothing to do but to take the course so constantly
advocated, and break the blockade, which we could have
done without illegality. But from one end of England to
the other there was one unanimous and instinctive feeling
that the fact of our interest being involved, and our supply
of cotton being shut in by the blockade, should make us
more scrupulously determine to construe the law against
ourselves, and not to take the Northern States at a disad-
vantage when their hands were already full, though we
could have raised the blockade with safety. That has been
the course the Government has pursued with the consent
of the nation. Has there been any complaint on the
part of our operatives ? Has there been any approach
to a murmur ? Quite the contrary. There has been among
the whole operative class of this country one unanimous
feeling of complete acquiescence in the course of our Go-
vernment adopted, although that course has, in appearance,
been so fatal to ourselves. And amongst all classes of the
community it has been the same. There have been in no
quarters any of those complaints which in former times
would
have been so rife from one mu of the country to the
other. Well, now, foreigners are inquiring from what
causes does this proceed. We have been accustomed to
say that our operative classes were composed of the dan-
gerous classes, and that the moment there was anything
like suffering amongst them the Government would have
difficulty. It proceeds, to a great degree, from the extent
to which education has advanced amongst them, and which
enables them now more accurately and more truly to esti-
mate the causes of any such occurrences as arise. For-
merly they would have complained of their masters and of
Government, and looked in every quarter for some solution
of what was to them an insoluble problem. Now they have
intelligence enough to investigate and judge of the conduct
of their masters. There has been no complaint against
them, and the men have been intelligent enough to examine
the policy of the Government, and so far from engaging, as
they would a few years ago, in tumultuous proceedings and
riots, we now find that all classes have been united. Vir-
tue has been exhibited by the sufferers, and there has been
a display of zeal, sympathy, and every Christian effort on
the part of the classes above them; and England in this
way has presented such an example and spectacle as has
never been before exhibited to the world. (Cheers.) Then
if I am asked how long is this to continue ?—how long is
this wicked war in America to be permitted ?—when are
you to recognise the Southern States ?—when is European
intervention of some kind to take place ?—all I can say is
that when that is to be done, and how it is to be done, is the
most difficult question that any government can have to deal
with. I for cne am not anxious to precipitate their move-
ment inany direction. This I am most anxious for, that what-
ever the Government may d ) they may do it at a time when
the nation will exhibit the same unanimity that it has
hitherto exhibited in support of all the policy that the Go-
vernment has pursued ; and that whatever is done shall
come with all the power and all the responsibility of a Go-
vernment that has hitherto been mcderate, and in its mode-
ratio I supported by the national sentiment. lam one of
those who feel that the position we occupy at the present
moment, while it increases our power, also increases our
responsibility. We are at this moment happily at peace
with all the world ; but I believe we owe that peace, not to