The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-13 00:00:00

rHE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 12, lEEE.

Mr. G. C. Bentinck, M.P., at Taunton.

The high constables of the borough of Taunton,
Messrs. Evans and Chapman, invited the high
bailiffs of the borough, the civic officers and their
friends, to a banquet on Thursday evening at Patti-
son's Castle Hotel, to inaugurate their year of office.
After the usual loyal, patriotic, and local toasts,
Mr. H. BADCOCK said that the toast which hehad
the honour to propose certainly had the charm of
novelty. He never heard it proposed at a civic
banquet before, still he was quite sure they would
receive it with acclamation on account of the name
connected with the toast—" The Houses of Lords
and Commons," coupled with the name of Mr.
George Cavendish Bentinck. (Prolonged applause.)
By their applause they admitted he was a true pro-
phet. (Hear, hear.) They knew what the compo-
sition of the House of Lords would be, but they did
not know what the composition of the House of
Commons would be in the coming Parliament.
Although they had the misfortune to lose two very
good representatives for the borough of Taunton,
yet in the member for Whitchaven they had a man
who, whatever might happen, would be honest to
his principles, and do his duty as became him.
(Great applause.)
Mr. G. C. BENTINCK, on rising to respond to the
compliment, was greeted with a perfect ovation.
He said he begged to return his most grateful
thanks to his esteemed friend Mr. Badcock, and to
his numerous friends for the manner in which they
had spontaneously responded to the compliment
paid him. The toast was " The Houses of
Lords and Commons ;" but for the House of
Lords he could not say much, as he had not the hon-
our of being a member of that august assembly, nor
had he the least chance of being so, either by his
own individual merits, or by other means. (Laugh-
ter.) As a member of the House of Commons, which
never mentioned the House of Lords, but always
referred to it as " that other place" (laughter), he
begged to say that he had great confidence in " that
other place," and they would always be found to
do their duty, and defend that constitution which had
made England great, glorious, and free. (Applause.)
It gave him the greatest pleasure to meet them on
that occasion, because it afforded him an opportu-
nity of acknowledging the very great kindness he
had always received at the hands of the electors of
that borough—from those who had supported him,
as well as those who were opposed to him. (Hear.)
A spirit of good fellowship always seemed to hover
around their connection, and he hoped the same feel-
ing would be extended to those who had succeeded
him and his late colleague. (Hear.) His duties as
a member of Parliament, as far as Taunton was
concerned, were light, but he had endeavoured faith-
fully and honestly to discharge them towards his
constituents. Whether he did so or not to their
satisfaction it was not for him to say, but of this he
was convinced, that since he had been a member of
Parliament he had never either forfeited a pledge
given or departed from any one article of his politi-
cal creed. (Applause.) He was quite sure that
every one then present would join him in lamenting
the death of that eminent man, Lord Palmerston.
(Hear.) It was his (Mr. Bentinck's) lot to differ
from that noble lord in politics ; at least he did so
nominally. He had enjoyed the honour of Lord
Palmerston's personal friendship, and any man who
knew Lord Palmerston was aware that a more hos-
pitable host, a more congenial companion, or a kinder
friend never existed. With regard to Lord Palmer-
ston's political conduct, he (Mr. Bentinck) was pre-
pared to admit that his death at the present time was
a national loss, for Lord Palmerston, during the last
few days of his life, had endeavoured, and success-
fully endeavoured, to resist any change in the con-
stitution of the country. It was true that he had
ejected Lord Derby's Government upon the cry of
Radical Reform, and that his Government was
pledged to carry a bill to that effect ; but no sooner
was he securely installed in office than he saw the
intelligence and education of the country was op-
posed to what he termed " organic changes," and
he therefore courageously shelved the obnoxious
measure never to be revived during the existence of
the last Parliament. Session after session
Lord Palmerston " scattered the enemies of our
' constitution and confounded their politics." (Loud
applause.) He shut up the ballot box—laughter)—
and drove his (Mr. Bentinck's) friend Mr. Berkeley
to the opposite side of the house to agitate the ques-
tion. Ile extinguished Mr. Baines's bill. He silenced
the fire of Mr. Locke King's ten pounders. (Cheers
and laughter.) By this policy Lord Palmerston had
in his (Mr. Bentinck's) opinion condoned many past
errors of a political life, and deserved well of his
country. Lord Palmerston was no more—a great
crisis bad arrived—Lord Russell was at the head of
the Government., but it was. doubtful whether he
could longer "rest and be thankful." By his side,
in the Cabinet, sat the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
a restless spirit, who. for 28 out of 33 years of poli-
tical life had been Tory and Conservative. He was
now before the public in a new character. Rejected
byOxford he stood unmuzzled and untrammelled—
a ready instrument in the hands of Birmingham, and
prepared, if they might judge from his recent speeches
at Glasgow, to advocate, with all the unscrupulous
zeal of a renegade, the doctrines which the Glasgow
Reform Union commended to his notice, and with
which that illustrious but unwashed body proposed,
in their own expressive words, to " sweeten the
breath of society." (Laughter.) He (I%lr. Bentinck)
saw breakers ahead, but still he had confidence in
the new Parliament. The Ministerial party claimed,
it was true, a gain of some 20 or 25 seats, but when
it was remembered that many candidates succeeded
merely to support Lord Palmerston, and that cer-
tain investigations, which always follow a general
election, would have to be conducted—(hear)—he
thought the state of parties in the present Parliament
would be found not to differ materially from that in
the preceding Parliament. Under these circumstances
we should again have a weak Government, depen-
dent for its majorities either upon an extreme poli-
tical section whose views it did not profess to repre-
sent, or else upon the independent support of 300
gentlemen who occupied the Opposition benches.
Now he (Mr. Bentinck) desired an end of this state
of things. He wished to see a coalition of those men
who; thinking alike upon all matters of importance,
were now separated either by idle party cries or by
motives purely personal. He trusted those to whom
he referred would put their shoulders to the wheel
and form a great constitutional party, As great
effects sometimes sprang from trifling causes serious
evils arose from the indiscriminate use of the terms
" Liberal party " and " Liberal." It was his mis-
fortune not to be able to understand the term " The
great Liberal party," for he saw its so-called mem-
bers holding opinions as widely distant as the space
which separates the poles. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Lowe,
for instance, was said to be a member of the Liberal
party, and yet in the last session he had delivered a
speech against any lowering of the suffrage—an out
and out Tory speech, the best on the subject that
had been heard within the walls of the late House of
Commons. Again, Mr. llorsman, Mr. Gregory,
Lord Grosvenor, Lord Elcho, Mr. Augustus Smith,
and many others held the same views. Could it be

said, then, that these gentlemen belong to the so-
called Liberal party, of which Mr. Bright and his

followers are members ? Wile, the conclusion is pre-
posterous! (Loud applause.) The same principle ap-
plied to those entrusted with the elective franchise.

There was a constituency not 100 miles from Taun-

ton which he had canvassed frequently, and when
soliciting certain voters he would perhaps be asked
to state his political opinions. The voters would
then admit they concurred in his views, but when
he was about to book their votes as a matter of
course, he would be met with the rejoinder "I beg
your pardon, I vote for Mr. Somebodyelse, the
rival candidate. I agree with you and disagree with
Mr. Somebodyelse, but then I am a Liberal, and so
is he, and I must go with the great Liberal party,"
and thus the vote is given to Mr. Somebodyelse,
who is often ready to stand in for extreme doc-

trines, and may be possibly even a revolutionary
socialist. Now he (Mr. Bentinck) had no hesita-
tion in saying that such conduct was not straight-

forward, that it was an un-English, that it was
" illiberal" in the strongest possible sense. (Great

applause.) He should like to find all men openly

backing their political opinions by deeds as well as
by words. He was very glad to hear from Mr. W.