The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-26 00:00:00

HIE SU N, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 26, 1865.

The Berkshire Conservatives,

On Tuesday evening a public dinner was given in
the Town-hall, Reading, to Mr. Benyon, M.P., by
the Conservative electors of Berkshire. The com-
pany numbered 450. Among the invited guests of
the evening were—Col. Loyd Lindsay (who is to be
brought forward as a second candidate for the county
in the Conservative interest at the next election),
Mr. G. Hardy, M.P., Archdeacon Wordsworth,
D.D., Mr. Forsyth, Q.C., Mr. MalMs, M.P., Mr.
Beach, M.P., and Mr. D. Griffiths, M.P. The Right
Hon. J. R. Mowbray officiated as chairman, being
supported on the right by Mr. Benyon, M.P., Sir C.
Russell, V.C., the Hon. G. Barrington, the Mayor
of Reading, and Col. Vyse ; and on the left by Col.
Loyd Lindsay, V. C., Sir P. Hunter, Sir G.W. Hayes,
Mr. Lygon, M.P., and Rev. A. P. Cust.
After the cloth had been removed,

The CHAIRMAN stated that it had been the wish of
many Conservatives that he should invite his right
hon. friend, and their distinguished leader in the
House of Commons, Mr. Disraeli, to be present at
this great banquet. (Loud cheers.) Mr. Disraeli's
reply was as follows :

" Hatfield, Dec. 26, 1864.

"Dear Mr. Mowbray,—l feel truly honoured by the wish
of my friend Mr. Benyon, and of Col. Loyd Lindsay, that
I should be present at the dinner which is to be given
to them on the 24th January. But for many reasons, with
which 1 will not now weary you, but which are entirely
of a public nature, I have long been obliged to decline at-
tending public dinners except in my own county.
" I sincerely hope your gathering will be very success-
ful.—Faithfully yours, " B. DISRAELI.
" The Right Hon. J. R. Mowbray, M.P."

The right hon. gentleman also read apologies for
absence from the Marquis of Downshire and Lord
Barrington, the former owing to the death of a near
connection, and the latter in consequence of per-
sonal indisposition.
The usual loyal and patriotic toasts were given
after dinner—Sir CHARLES RUSSELL, V.C., in re-
sponding for " The Army and Navy," describing
the toast as a Conservative one, the training which a
soldier received tending eminently to Conservatism.
The CHMRMAN then proposed the toast of the
evening. In doing so he understood the meaning
of the present gathering to be that in the approach-
ing election the men of Berkshire said, as the farmers
of Devonshire said last week, as the tradespeople of
Hastings, as the working men of Leeds, and many
other populous towns and counties, had lately done,
that they were prepared to rally round the Conser-
vative flag. (Cheers.) They believed that Conser-
vative principles were entitled to be popular, because
they rested on a much broader and more liberal basis
than those of mere W higgery. (Cheers.) They be-

lieved they offered greater freedom to the people
than was compatible with the tyranny of a democracy.
They believed that the humblest man in the com-
munity was equally interested with the highest in
the support of hereditary monarchy. They knew
that the permanence of the former was guaranteed
by the existence of the House of Lords, whose doors
were open to all. There was a constant infusion of
new blood, and the son of the tradesman, the peasant,
or the artisan might win his way by force of talent
and character to a place among the peers of England.
(Cheers.) They believed that the House of Commons,
representing the varied intelligence of the country,
was keenly alive to enlightened public opinion,
and prepared to do justice to all classes. (Cheers.)
They believed that a national establishment of reli-
gion carried with it a blessing to the State which
was sanctified by the alliance. (Cheers.) But they
desired to see this Conservatism sober, rational, and
progressive. (Cheers.) They had no class inte-
rests to serve. They would see every proved abuse
corrected, every real grievance redressed. They de-
sired to see legislation practical and effective, un-
dertaken in a friendly spirit towards existing insti-
tutions, but having reference in all its details to the
wants of the age in which they lived. (Cheers.)
They believed that no such useful and practical le-
gislation had proceeded from the Conservative
party whenever they had been in office for the last
30 years, whether during that short and brilliant
administration of Sir Robert Peel in 1834-35, or the
powerful Government, which lasted from 1841 to
1846, or the shortlived Ministries of Lord Derby in
1852 -and 1858-9. (Cheers.) The speaker pro-

ceeded to attack the conduct of Liberal Ministers
for many years back, blaming them for high esti-

mates, though one of their mottoes was economy
and retrenchment, and making similar charges.
The present regime of Lord Palmerston could not
last for ever, and there was admitted danger from
attacks upon the Constitution. He alluded especially
to Mr. Blight's democratic spirit, and to the danger
of Mr. Gladstone's taking the lead in the attempted
reform. He concluded by eulogising Mr. Benyon,
whose estate showed the sense of responsibility he
felt attached to the owners of large prciperties, and
Col. Loyd Lindsay, a gallant soldier, wk, had gone
through all the sufferings and struggles of the
Crimean campaign. As to the latter he said :—lt
remained only that they should add to the decora-
tion of the Victoria Cross, which had been bestowed
on him by his Sovereign, the magic letters M.P., as

the decoration of the people. (Cheers.)
Mr. BENYON, in responding, repeated the Tory
common-places about the Government's abandon-
ment of the Reform measure they came into office
to carry through, and about the malt tax.
Col. LOYD LINDSAY, in responding, gave a defi-
nition of " True Conservatism." True Conservatism
was neither reactionary nor destructive. It did not
advocate class privileges, nor did it deem all existing
things as good as need be, and resist all change.
Such a line of policy would inevitably revolutionise
society, and could not with justice be attributed to
true Conservatism any more than a desire to intro-
duce an American form of constitution could be
attributed to the more moderate among the Liberals.
He had no wish to point out what he conceived to
be the errors of their political opponents. Rather
would he endeavour to seek the right path for their
own guidance. Whatever might formerly have
been the case, selfish inaction was no longer the
besetting sin of the Conservatives. Would he could
with equal justice say that selfish agitation was
equally unknown on the other side. Let them,
therefore, inquire what was the wisest course of
action that they could pursue. Was there no ground
on which they could claim 'a share of the noble name
of Liberal, so wisely assumed by the popular party ?
Was there nothing Liberal in their mission to sup-

port those time-honoured institutions, to which
England owed her greatness and her freedom, or to
guide, control, and regulate unavoidable and pro-
gressive changes ? Was there nothing that kindled
patriotism in the determination to uphold in full
efficiency the national armaments, the pledges of our
independence, and to seek to maintain in their rela-
tions with foreign countries the proud position of
champion of justice and liberty which England's
moral influence had . won for her ? Was there
nothing that appealed to a generous spirit in the
thought of supporting the Church and the clergy
who labour among them in the disinterested spirit
of true ministers of the Gospel ? Was there nothing
Liberal in the conduct of those ratepayers who
came forward year after year—not to claim exemp-
tion from a tax, but permission to continue to pay
it ? The church rate, which was borne exclusively
by the land, for whose benefit was it borne ? Surely
for that of the poor man, who justly considered that
he had as much right to his place in church as he
had to breath the pure air of heaven.
The toast of the " House of Commons" was pro-
posed by Mr. H. J. SIMONDS, and responded to by
Mr. G. HARDY, M.P., in an eloquent speech.
Conservative
MAuNs,
Members Al. P . ,
Btloireoutogahsst
mo! " Th
Conirse.
Berk-
shire." B erke-

Several other toasts followed, being replied to by
the Hon. F. Lygon, M.P., Mr. Darby Griffiths,
M.P., and Colonel Vyse, M.P.
The proceedings were not brought to a close until
nearly eleven o'clock.

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—Holloway's Ointment.--All varie-
ties of ulcerations, bad legs, sores, wounds, and eruptions
can be cured by the diligent use of this cooling, soothing,
and healing unguent. The old and often failing fashion of
strapping the edges of ulcers together with plaister has en-
tirely given way before the more reasonable treatment of
Holloway's ointment, which builds up from the bottom of
the wound with sound and healthy granulations ; these
gradually grow till they reac.h the level of the surface, then
contract, harden, and immediately become covered with a
new and wholesome skin. The proper application of this
ointment diminishes the inflammation, causes the unhealthy
discharge first to grow thick, then to ce.ase, when the
swelling disappears, and the natural Ohape I€ 3 restored.

Mr. E. A.
_Leathaan, M.P., at Huddersfield.

Mr. E. A. Leatham, M.P. for Huddersfield, delivered his
annual address to the electors and non-electors of that

borough, last evening, in the Philosophical Hall, Hudders-
field. The hall was crowded in every part. The chair
was occupied by Mr Mathew Hale, Mr. Leatham, on mak-
ing his appearance, was received with long continued
cheering. The Chairman congratulated the meeting that

at the commencement of another year this great country

was at peace. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Wright Mellor proposed
a resolution expressing great satisfaction with the able
advocacy and unswerving support which Mr. Leatham had
given to liberal measures, and pledging the meeting by all

constitutional means to secure his return at the next elec-

tion, Mr. C. Jones seconded the resolution, which was
carried with only two dissentients.
Mr. LEATHAM, who was received very warmly, said it was

in no garb of triumph, and no accent of exultation, but

with humiliation, and in the well-worn suit of sackcloth
and ashes that he presented himself once more before
them. (Applause.) It might be said if he did not ap-

prove of the way in which his friends carried on the
Government concern, why did not he give his vote when
the occasion offered, last summer, in favour of a process
analogous to that which was known:in commercial circles

as winding up under inspection ? (Laughter.) His reply
was, because the transaction which so nearly brought the
Government to grief was one of which he heartily
approved. He heartily approved of their decision
to remain at peace—a decision which, if rumour spoke true,

was not arrived at without difficulty, and without a great

deal of external pressure. It would have been ungracious
to urge the necessity of remaining at peace, and then to

have turned round on the Government and said, " Your
course has been illo&ical, you have trifled with the honour
of the country, and we will hand you over to the Phili-

stines." And what was the policy of the Philistines ? Was

it logical or dignified ? Was it in accordance, he did not
say with honour, but with common honesty ? As usual, he
sat opposite the Philistines, and had the opportunity of
watching them. He observed that whenever the Danish
question was raised the Opposition benches began to fill,
eagerness and expectation were depicted on every counte-
nance, and it might be supposed the House of Commons
was about to become an animated assembly. If anyone rose

:o ask a question about Denmark, or dropped a hint about

the possibility of war, he was sure to meet with rapturous
applause. If ever the policy of a great party was defined
and pronounced, it was that of the Opposition up to a cer-
tain point. At last they reached a crisis ; war or peace was
in the balance, the betting even, and odds in favour of war.
Then the Government declared for peace, and what became
of the Opposition ? After crying havoc till the house rang
again, the supreme moment arrived, and the oracles were
dumb. It was discovered that the Opposition had no policy.

No, it was only a plot to oust the Government, and set itseli

on the Government benches. What mattered war or peace
to them ? It was not a struggle for right and honour, but a
low despicable faction fighting for place and pay. (Ap-
plause.) Was he going to abet such a policy ? He did not
think the course pursued by the Government had been
either logical or dignified. Although they had not pledged
the honour of the country, yet they had used hints and
written despatches, which raised false hopes. They had
been unguarded and imprudent, and therefore deserved
censure ; yet when they declared for peace, the Opposition
would not declare for war. Peace was, under the circum-
stances, a momentary loss of dignity, and war would have
been a deliberate crime against the interests of the country.
(Hear, hear.) Nor was this the only occasion on which the
conduct of the Opposition was undignified, and, as he
thought, unworthy of a great party. What were they to say
of their prosecution of his hon. friend, Mr. Stansfeld ?
(Hear, hear, and applause.) Imagine a great party, which
embraced in its ranks the chivalry of England, conspiring
with the police of despotic France to fasten on an hon.
gentleman a charge of complicity in an assassination plot.
Englishmen should have spurned such a thing; and he
must suppose that they were mixed up with the French
police ignorantly, and made dupes in hatching a counter-
feit conspiracy. For anything he knew, they were
closeted with French spies ; and for what ? In order that
they might, if possible, damage the reputation of as honour-
able a gentleman as ever breathed, and that, too, not from
any mistaken sense of duty, but from a hope of breaking
down the Government party. (Hear, hear.) The Den-
mark defeats coming on the back of the great Stansfeld-
Mazzini business, had so prostrated this party that it might
be expected that the coming session of Parliament would
proved as uneventful as those which had preceded it.
There were, however, a few questions coming before the
house of great importance, on which there should be a
thorough understanding. The first was the Permissive Bill
of his hon. friend Mr Lawson. (Hear, hear.) That was a

question in which he understood great interest was felt in
Huddersfield. He thought it a mistake to receive that mea-
sure with levity and ridicule, as though it was altogether
unworthy of the patient attention of the house. The high
character of his hon. friend, coupled with the well blown
fact that large numbers of earnest men up and down the
country expected great things from the bill, ought to en-
sure for its advocates a fair and respectful hearing. With
this view he, without any hesitation, voted for the first
reading of the bill. But having secured for his hon. friend
a fair hearing, it became another question whether they
were prepared for the next step—the second reading of the
bill. There appeared to him three very grave and formid-
able objections to the Permissive Bill. The first was a con-
stitutional one. He objected to all permissive legislation,
except in the merest matters of detail. He objected to all
sectional-legislation, making one law for one parish, and
another for the next. If the minute vestries to whom it was
proposed under this bill to intrust the rights and property
of large numbers of their fellow subjects, were qualified to
discuss a complex question like this, and to legislate upon
it, it would be hard to find any question whatever On
which they might not exercise the same privilege. But it
was the essence of representative government that the
class, which elected, which was a similar class to the one
paying rates, should possess no direct legislative power ;
and the principle of parliamentary representation was that
not even the representative principle should alone legislate.
They had taken the precaution to protect the rights and
property of Englishmen by the prerogatives of the Crown,
the privileges of the Lords, and the authority of a repre-
sentative assembly. All these constituted the threefold and
invaluable shelter which they had raised over the rights
and property of the meanest subject in the realm. But
here was a proposition which, with naked and revolu-
tionary simplicity, proposed to entrust the property and
maintenance of the rights of a large class of persons to
diminutive, homogenous, democratic, and irresponsible
Parliaments, set up all over the country, in place of a cen-
tral, responsible, compound, and constitutional one. (Hear,
hear.) It seemed to him that this struck at the root of a
constitutional and representative system. Other very grave
objections remained to be stated. His hon. friend (Mr.
Lawson) was a man of peace, but supposing his bill to be
carried, how long would he guarantee the peace of the com-
munity ? The passing of such a bill must be a signal for an
instantaneous struggle all over the country between the
advocates of the bill and its opponents. Every parish would
be an interminable scene of conflict, renewed with every
recoil and fluctuation of opinion—and there would be no
end to the envy, hatred, and all uncharitableness, which
these philanthropists, who came to them in the guise of
angels of peace, would engender in their midst. " No,
no," and cheers.) He knew of no article of consumption
the forcible deprivation of which would create the same
ill-feeling and ill-blood, for at all our festivities and social
gatherings, whether rightly or wrongly, it had been, and
was still from immemorial usage bound up with them as
an article of diet, so that the man who struck at this
custom, struck home. To show that he had not
over-coloured the evil passions to which such an enactment
would give rise, he had only to refer to the conduct of the
advocates of the bill themselves. There was no more pros-
pect of passing the measure than of a thaw in the Arctic
regions. Yet these men declared that they were prepared
to make this question with them the sole political question
at the next general election ; that they would only support
that candidate who would support it, however preposterous
his whole political creed might be—(applause)—and that
no length or magnitude of public services; no uprightness,
and no ability should shelter from their resentment and hos-
tility the man that dared to vote against it. (Cheers and dis-
order.) Did such men think that members of Parliament
were to be coerced against their judgment? Let them con-
vince him,if they could; but the man who failed to convince
him, and then talked of pressure insulted him—(applause)
....and he ceased to listen to his argument, and felt that he
should be the better without his vote. (Renewed applause.)
There was a great objection which remained to be stated.
Ho denied the right of any body of men whatever to lay a
wholesale embargo upon a great and valuable article of
human food; and he denied the right of man to deny the
right of another to use this article because a third man
abused it. (Applause.) He denied the right of his hon.
friend, or anyone else, to punish him because his neigh-
bour was a drunkard. (Renewed applause.) Such a thing
was tyranny of the worst and most despotic kind. The
object of the. Permissive Bill was to ensure public order
and decency at the price of individual freedom—the free-
dom of a man who had not abused, and therefore had not
forfeited, that right. (Applause.) If, then, his hon.
friend should be successful, it would be a success at the
price of a breach of constitutional and legislative action—
(" No, no," and a voice, " Shut up teetollers ;" laughter)—
at the price of an inroad on public harmony, and a great
outrage on public freedom. Be the consequences and the
pressure what they might, he was not prepared
to support such a measure at such a cost—
(Applause.) Instead of being a short cut to morality,he be-
lieved it would prove a long way round, and that the re-
coil from such an unnatural restraint would hurry the
nation into indulgences and excesses which they would all
equally deplore. He trusted for the elevation of the people
not to penal acts of Parliament, but to that almost sponta-
neous and irrepressible development which he saw going on
around him, and the realisation of which constituted their
true claim to a part in the government of the country.
How could men ask to be enfranchised at the hands of their
opponents, when they were the very first to clamour for a
Permissive Bill, by which they admitted their morality to
be so weak and their intelligence so feeble, that they asked
to be treated like positive children—(cheers)—and that all
temptations might be taken completely out of their sight ?
If he believed this picture of -them to be a true one, he

should cease that day to be a reformer ; he should not dare
to entrust so much to hands so feeble; and he should wait,
at all events, till they felt strong enough to stand without
a Permissive Bill. (Applause.) He owed a great grudge to
this measure, because it had taken a great deal of zeal and
labour, which they could ill spare, from other enterprises.
Another question far more positive, practical, and vital,
affecting not only the happiness of the working classes but
of the whole community, had been suffered to lie on the
shelf. If half the zeal shown for the Permissive Bill had
been given to reform, they would not now he whistling for
the wind and waiting for the tide. (Hear, hear.) In say-
ing this he did not speak of Huddersfield, for had other
towns been as Huddersfield, they would long ago have
escaped this dilemma of the Liberal party. He had never
addressed them on reform without meeting with an instant
and enthusiastic response. But Huddersfield, unhappily,
was not .an epitome of England, nor of the West Riding ;
and he could not conceal the fact that when Govern-
ment abandoned reform there was not that deep indig-
nation that they had a right to expect. Indeed at one
time the apathy and indolence of the people was
so great that he began to fear lest the position of this ques-
tion might remain for years a scandal and reproach, not
only upon the Government and the Liberal party, but what
would have been far more distressing, a scandal vrtt re-
proach upon the working classes themselves. (HeatOrear.)
It was expedient at times to have a good party cry with
which to enlist popular sympathy. The cry of "reform "
did wonders. It upset the Derby-Disraeli coach, and started
on the road the Palmerston-Russell omnibus. To postpone
that horror of horrors—a dissolution of Parliament—the
cry for reform was laid up for another rainy day—(laugh-
ter)—in the hope that when the dissolution came it might
be used again, and the triumphant experiment be repeated
which had landed a reform party in paradise, and reform
itself in limbo. (Laughter.) But was it true that the friends
of reform were cast down? The people, apparently so
spiritless, he believed were not really so enervated and de-
based by a policy which they did not expect. Deserted
and betrayed by those who volunteered to be leaders, they
were looking out for new ones, and in the meantime the
cheap press was doing its work. With intelligence came
ambition; and in a free country intelligence and ambition
were the sure parents of political power ; and they who
believed the people were now in a deep sleep would wake
some fine morning and hear them thundering impatiently
at the gate. Ho thought that fine morning was not far off.
(Applause.) Two or three events had occurred of late
which went far to show that we were on the eve of a re-
newed and formidable agitation. When his hon. friend
(Mr. Baines) moved, in a most admirable speech, the second
reading of his Borough Franchise Bill, a magnificent rise
was got odr of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. (Ap-
plause.) In the course of one of the strongest reform
speeches to which it was ever his good fortune to listen, Mr.
Gladstone said, " I venture to say that every man who
is not presumably incapacitated by some consideration
of personal unfitness or of political danger is morally
entitled to come within the pale of the constitution"—thus
throwing the burden of proof off the shoulders of the man
who claimed on to the shoulders of the man who refused
it. The words were hardly out of Mr. Gladstone's mouth
when their immense significance was realised. Below the
gangway the words were received with cheers and exulta-
tion, which was only equalled by the consternation above
it and the anger on the other side of the house. But what-
ever might be the feelings with which the words were re-
ceived by various sections of politicians, it was agreed that
the reform question had entered upon quite another phase
when the foremost statesman of his age—(applause)—a
man still in the prime of life, of unimpeachable character,
dauntless resolution, and transcendant genius, thus flung
himself manfully into the breach ; and they would join with
him in the hope that to that right hon. gentleman, as chief
of the Liberal party, chief in pre-eminent position, in lustre
and in genius, might be reserved the imperishable distinc-
tion of linking his name for ever with this great measure
of justice. (Loud and continued cheers.) In respect to the
civil war in America, he would reiterate his previously ex-
pressed opinion that there could be but one issue, if the

North were prepared to make the necessary sacrifices, that
result being the extinction of slavery and the subjugation
of the South. This opinion, he was aware, had not been
the opinion of the many ; but it had been borne out by the
actual course of events. (Applause.) The hon. gentleman
resumed his seat amidst great applause.
A resolution thanking Mr. Leatham for his address, and
expressing the hope that he. might for many years be pre-
sent on similar occasions, was afterwards'passed, and con-
cluded the proceedings.