The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-07 00:00:00

The Conservatives on Mr. Bright and Reform

MALDON, Dee.,
The Maldon Conservative Club celebrated its
anniversary last evening, under the presidency of
Mr. J. Oxley Parker, who was supported by six
members of the House of Commons, viz., Mr. G. M.
W. Peacocke, M. R. A. Earle, M.P., Mr. C.
Du Cane, M.P., Mr. H. J. Selwin, M.P., Lord E.
Cecil, M.P., and Capt. Jervis, M.P. The company
also included the Zion. J. Strutt, the Rev. C. Lee,
Lieut.-Col. Brice, the Rev. W. Bullock, &c. Let-
ters of apology for non-attendance were received
from Mr. T. J. Miller, Mr. J. Belk, M.P.,
Mr. C. Lucas, Sir C. de Crespigny, Major Tawke,
Mr. Scratton, &c. IMMO
The CHAIRMAN proposed the usual loyal toasts, and
The llon. J. STRUT" gave " The Army, Navy,
Militia, and Volunteers." (Cheers.)
Lord E. CECIL, M.P., 'replied for the army, and
said the compliment paid to the service from which
he had retired for ten years came with especial force
at the present time, as the other day a notable public
character—Mr. Bright—was pleased to observe that
the officers stationed in our dependencies in the
West Indies hal not done their duty in the matter of
the negro rebellion, now at an end, in Jamaica. The
hon. member for Birmingham sometimes indulged in
reckless assertions, but he (Lord E. Cecil) was much
astonished to read that he observed to an after-
dinner audience—to an assembly of his own coun-
trymen, not of emancipated negroes--that he hoped
that Governor Eyre and all his accomplices would
shortly be brought before the bar of justice for the
foul murder of Mr. Gordon. He (Lord E. Cecil)
did not wish to enter into the question whether Mr.
Gordon was guilty or not guilty ; he trusted that he
was not ; but he thought that the observations of
Mr. Bright were most unwarrantable on the part of
a public man with regard to one of two such hon-
ourable professions asthe army and navy. (Cheers.)
Nobody ought to know better than Mr. Bright that
according to the maxim of our law, the meanest of
her Majesty's subjects was never held to be guilty
unless he was proved to be so. He (Lord E. Cecil)
must say that he thought Mr. Bright had made a
most unwarrantable attack on the character and
reputation of many good and worthy men, who by
their devotion had saved us at a most critical period,
and who, from theirdecision and judgment, had de-
served a better compliment than that which Mr.
Bright had paid them. Believing, as he did, that
Governor Eyre and the other officers concerned
would come unscathed out of a public inquiry, he
would leave them in the hands of a generous public.
Lieut.-Col. Brice and Capt. Tuffnell responded for
the militia and volunteers respectively.
The CHAIRMAN gave " The healthy of the Conser-
vative Members for the borough of Maldon."
Mr. PEACOCKE, M.P., in responding, said when
he had last the pleasure of meeting his friends at
Maldon they were engaged in the general election,
and it could not be disguised that the result of that
election had been generally considered unfavour-
able to the Conservative party. But although the
result of that election might be considered unf a-
vourable to the Conservative party, he did not
think it could be said to have been unfavourable to
Conservative principles, because he believed that the
country at large was Conservative, and that in
giving a majority to the Administration of the late
Premier it had not given a majority to the present
one. The verdict was simply that Lord Palmerston
was a better Conservative than the gentlemen op-
posed to him. Whatever might have been the ver-
dict of the country, South Essex had given her ver-
dict unmistakably in favour of Conservative princi-
ples. It was- true that the Conservatives met with
defeats in North Essex and at Colchester ; but if
the reports which had reached him on this subject
were correct, the means by which the Liberal victo-
ries were achieved would not exactly bear a very
strict investigation. The Conservatives had also
the consolation of knowing that if an election took
place in North Essex or Chichester with the present
register, it must unquestionably terminate in a Li-
beral defeat; while, on the other hand, if an election
took place in South Essex or Maldon, the Conser-
vatives might as confidently rely upon a Conserva-
tive triumph. But all parties would unite in heart-
felt lamentation with regard to the cattle pestilence
which had stricken so many homesteads in North
and South Essex ; and whether they looked to the
Orders in Council as they had been, or as they
were, they must alike allow that they could extract
very little consolation from them. If he understood
the edicts in Council—for he could call themnothing
else—as they at first stood, upon the report of the
district inspector, who was sometimes a veterinary
surgeon and sometimes not, every man was subject
to have his cattle destroyed, and that without any
compensation whatever. Now, to a certain extent,
the character of the edicts in Council was modified ;
at present a man was ordered to isolate his cattle,
and it was only in the event of his not complying
with that order that they would be slaughtered. So
far the modification was in the right direction ; but
if we turned to the two reports of the Royal Com-
missioners—for they were divided amongst them-
selves—he must say that he thought they were
equally unsatisfactory. What he complained of
was the spirt of extermination which they
breathed. He could find in them no idea but
that of " Kill, kill, kill." Now, he would rather
have had the principle of " Cure, cure, cure."
It was all very well if we could conceive that this
pestilence would never occur again, that we should
stamp it out at the present moment by adopting the
very energetic measures proposed by the report of
the majority of the commissioners ; but as our popu-
lation was increasing, it was impossible to talk about
putting an absolute check to the importation of
cattle from abroad, and we must look forward to the
possibility of being subject to a return of the malady.
There was no disguising the fact, therefore, that our
great object should be to find out some cure, and it
did appear to him to be a very clumsy method of
curing a disease to slaughter the patient. (Laugh-
ter.) If this principle had been applied to many of
those diseases which formerly ravaged mankind,
those diseases which we now found amenable to
treatment would have remained as they were at first,
absolutely incurable and permanent. What, there-
fore, he wished to see was that the Government, in-
stead of providing slaughter-houses, should provide
hospitals. He did not altogether think that cure
was so absolutely hopeless as some people supposed.
He believed that under the present system of treat-
ment, or no treatment, one in eight recovered, and
he had seen in the papers that with a different system
of treatment 75 per cent. in Holland recovered, lie
also saw with pleasure that our Minister at 'Munich
(Lord Augustus Loftus) had taken the trouble to
write to the Foreign Office stating that in Bavaria
a specific had been discovered for the disease. One I
recommendation of the commissioners he received
with pleasure, viz., that importations of cattle
should only take place within certain ports, and
that in these ports a system of Government inspec-
tion should be adopted, for he confessed that he had
great faith in a quarantine policy. If there was one
spot more than another which was exposed to disease,
it was perhaps Sicily, owing to imperfect drainage,
bad diet, and the filthy habits of the people.
nut although cholera has been raging in the basin
of the Mediterranean, Sicily had been exempt from
it becausn she had adopted a system of quaran-
tine. Ireland had been exempt from the present
scourge, by
J putting an end to importa-
tion of cattle; and it was a most fortunate thing
that Ireland should have thus been free from the
visitation. He had been spending a portion of the
summer in Ireland, and he
was happy to see the
material progress which she had made. The pig
was no longer the " jintleman that paid the rint."
(Laughter.) But at this moment every smallfarmer
had his herd, while every cottager had his cow ; and
he had no hesitation in saying that if by any chance
the cattle disease should reach Ireland, it would
prove a more fatal affair for that country than, the
potato blight. it was not only as regards material
progress that he remarked with pleasure the im_
provement of Ireland, but he might venture to say
that during the last eight years religious animosities
had considerably subsided, while political agitation
was at a discount. He said this boldly, in the face of
that tempest in a teacup called the Fenian insurrec-
tion. We mi
•
gilt depend upon it that no insurrection
in Ireland and no conspiracy could be of any im-
portance wbiti. ',snot countenanced by the Roman