The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-03 00:00:00

Mr. Cardwell, M.P , at Oxford.

OXFORD, Jan. 2.
The annual festival of Lodge 59 of the Ancient

Order of Druids was celebrated this day iu the uew

Corn Exchange, under the presidency of Brother

W. Wharton, Grand Arch. Among the guests

were the Right Hon. E. Cardwell, M.P., Mr.
Neste, M.P., Mr. J. Hughes (mayor), Mr. H.
Grant (sheriff), Mr. Carr (ex-mayor), Aldermen
Spiers, Ward, Randall, and Towle, Mr. Justice
Pike, Captain Malham, Captain Fane, Ensign
Hussey, &c.

The usual loyal and constitutional toasts were
given and received with great cordiality.
The CHAIRMAN proposed " The health of the
Members for the city, the Right Hon. E. Cardwell
and Mr. Neate." (Loud cheering.)
Mr. CARDWELL, who on rising to respond to the
toast was received with loud cheers, said—Gentle-

men, I am sure no words of mine will suffice to
express the feelings which animate my heart for the
kind and cordial reception which you have been

pleased to give to the mention of my name. Every
year as it passes over my head, gives occasion to
some new proof of your kindness and of your con-
fidence, and calls from me a corresponding expres-
sion of my gratitude and my cordial regard.
(Cheers.) When me met in this city this time last
year every eye was turned to that dark cloud in the
northern sky which was big with danger to a
friendly nation, and which threatened to disturb
the peace and tranquillity of Europe. I remember
that we then joined in the expression of an earnest

hope that we might be able to preserve peace for
ourselves, and that we also might be able to main-
tain by our influence the blessings of peace to
others. (Hear, hear.) That hope was partly gra-
tified and partly disappointed.

" The fates, assenting, granted half our prayer,
The rest the winds dispersed in empty air."
Gentlemen, so far as this question has been a matter
of political conflict, it is past and gone. I have not
a word to say respecting it in
.that regard ; but the
Inorai. the public lmon which the British com-
mituit3r-has derirml--fram thiS-AlBcuggio,n,-;.----d-.-uly,-
ject on which it is worth while briefly to linger. I
have read able speeches from those who recommend

that, as our position is insular, so should our policy
be ; that we should keep ourselves almost entirely
aloof from the affairs of others, and that we should
devote ourselves almost exclusively to the prosecu-
tion of our own improvement and the promotion of
the welfare of our own people. Other able

speakers have said that such a policy would be a
cold and selfish policy, that it would be a derelic-
tion of duty, that it would be an abrogation of the
place which England holds in the scale of nations.
To me it appears far easier to lay down general
principles than it is to guide their practical appli-
cation to the difficult circumstances that arise. But
in this, as in many other instances of public policy,

it seems to me that the analogy of private life
affords a very fair and certain guide by which we
may direct our steps in the mazes of public diffi-
culty. If an individual in a neighbourhood be
rich and powerful you would not expect him to be
prompt and ready to interfere in all the affairs of
others. Neither, on the other hand, if conflicts
arise in his neighbourhood, and a word of friendly
counsel would avert difficulty and disaster, do you
expect him to separate himself in the coldness of
isolation, and refuse to his neighbours the benefit
of his counsel. (Hear.) And that which is wise
and right in private life is, I think, wise and right
in the conduct of public affairs. I believe that the
judgment of the great British community is this—
that the policy which becomes a great nation like
England is at once a free and generous policy, but,
at the same time, a poliey exercising intervention
cautiously and charily, and exercising it when-
ever it is necessary in a sense of moderation and
in the interests of peace. (Cheers.) Gentlemen,
I have read, and I am sure that you have looked
with great interest to, the news which you have re-
ceived from the Northern States of America, not
only because you view with deep sympathy and re-
gret the suffering which the continuance of the
conflict in that country has occasioned, but because
you have been shocked to see that danger has been
anticipated lest friendly relations should be inter-
rupted and other countries be made the scene of
preparing hostile operations against a friendly
Power. (Hear, hear.) lam not now in a position
to speak on the precise merits of the questions that
have arisen, but I have no hesitation in assuring
you of my entire conviction that no men are more
sensible than Lord Monk (the Governor-General of
Canada) and his advisers of that which is due to
the honour of the British Crown and to the invio-
late neutrality of the British territory. (Hear.)
You may be certain that if the present law in
Canada be adequate they will carry it into execution
with promptitude and vigour, and that if the pre-
sent law be found inadequate it will not long be suf-
fered to remain so. (Cheers.) And, gentlemen,
what a spectacle have our fellow subjects in British
North America presented to the world. They have
seen in the last 15 or 20 years nearly every throne
in Europe shaken, and they now see the great re-
public of their own continent the scene of civil con-
vulsion and of civil war ; they remember with pride
and gratitude that they are the subjects of a throne as
ancient as the oldest European monarchy, and that
they live under institutions as free as any that ever
were known in the history of mankind. They
have conceived a noble ambition ; they have de-
signed to form, I say, a nation, but not a nation
divided from the allegiance which they owe to the
British throne, nor separated from the institutions
under which it is their pride to live, nor estranged
from the associations and attachments which bind
them to the mother country. (Hear, hear.) Gen-
tlemen, I have had the opportunity of reading able
speeches made by leading statesmen in North
America to their constituents, and I may say to you
in passing, what I am sure will interest you as it
interests me, that the President of the Council of
Canada delivers his speeches to the electors of Ox-
ford ; and when he was in this country the other
day I asked him what sort of place Oxford was, and
he replied to me, with pardonable pride, that Ox-
Pad Was the garden Canada and I said that I