The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-21 00:00:00

Lord Stanley at Liverpool.

Yesterday evening Mr. Philip H. Rathbone,
President of the Chamber of Commerce, enter-
tained Lord Stanley, Mr. T. B. Horsf all, Mr. John
Laird, M.P., Mr. S. R. Graves, M.P., Sir Charles
Bright, M.P., the Mayor (Mr. Farnworth), and a
number of gentlemen at a banquet held in the Law
Association Rooms, Liverpool.
After the usual toasts had been proposed,
the health of the
The CHAIRMAN, in proposing
said—We are very
Right Hon. Lord Stanley, M.P.,
fond of boasting of our advance in civilisation, and
so far as having disposed of most of the questions
which ever divided political parties I think with
justice ; but there surely remain problems to be
solved of hardly less importance—for instance, the
question of railways. (Hear.) The means of
communication are among the most important ele-
ments of the civilisation of a nation, and were so
considered by the greatest political nation of old—
the Romans. I suppose it is the first time in his-
tory that a country's means of communication have
been almost completely in the hands of private mo-
nopolists, and if it be true that nearly 200, or not

far from one-third, of the new House of Commons,
are railway directors, it is difficult to see how any
Government can carry a measure in the public in-

terest to which the railway companies are, as a

body, actively and unitedly opposed. (Hear, hear,
and cheers.) Again, few of us, I should presume,
could go into the courts and alleys that lie around
the spot where we now stand, and see the mass of
degradation, crime, and misery that settles there,
without a very strong conviction that our civilisa-
tion is far from being altogether a success, and
that the question of pauperism is one demanding
the statesman's most earnest attention. But
these are questions too delicate and difficult to be
dealt with as party questions. (Hear, hear.) They
cannot be formulated into those sharp and tell-
ing war cries which rouse popular enthusiasm,
and moreover it would be a most serious evil for
the country were such questions to fall into the
hands of those generous but mischievous poli-
ticians who mistake feelings for thoughts, passions
for principles, and too often credit to a warm heart
hasty and superficial utterances which they ought
rather to debit to a hot temper. (Applause.) Surely
it is most important that these questions should be
approached in the calm, philosophical temper of the
late Sir Cornewall Lewis, than whom England has
had few greater losses, and by statesmen who will
investigate the phenomena of political or social
science—call it which you will—with the same pa-
tient, searching, passionless, investigation with which

the naturalist examines the laws of physical science,
always recollecting that the laws of political eco-
nomy, for instance, are as much the laws of Provi-

dente, and that inquiries into them are as little

responsible for their existence—in short, that our
statesmen are perfectly careless as to what end such
investigations may lead, save only that the end is
the truth. It is because we believe that my Lord
Stanley, in common with a few of our statesmen on
both sides of the Houses, has undertaken the study
of politics as a science in this spirit, as well as its
practice as an art, that I ask all here of all shades
of politics—and I don't think there is an unrepre-
sented man—to do cordial respect to the manly,
conscientious thoroughness with which my Lord
Stanley grapples with any subject he undertakes.
(Cheers.) Gentleinen, the heart has its uses, though
thinking is not one of them. It is an excellent ser-
vant to the brain, though a bad master of it, and
one not unimportant use is when Englishmen ex-
press their candid admiration of and hearty sympathy
with those statesmen who show how profoundly
they love their country by sparing no work in her
service, no matter upon what side in politics they
may be. (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, in your name
I beg to thank Lord Stanley for the honour he has
done us in coming among us to-night, and I call
upon you to drink his health with all the honours.
The toast was received with enthusiasm.
Lord STANLEY on rising was received with loud
applause. After briefly acknowledging the kindness
of this reception, and dwelling upon the political
obligations of rank, he said,—But there is another
reason, and not one of a personal nature, why
I accept with pleasure the compliment you have
paid me. When I look around this room, having
been invited here as a neighbour and as one con-
nected with the landed interest of this county,
when I see around me able and worthy representa-
tives of the greatest mercantile and manufacturing
communities in the world, it seems that this meet-
ing is, so to speak, a type of that change which is
.happily taking place, if, indeed, it has not been
completely effected, throughout the country—the
union, or fusion, as it were, into one body, with
common interests, with common objects, and, in
the main, common ideas, of the great mercantile
-and manufacturing classes on the one hand, and
the great territorial body on the other. (Cheers.)
To see that union take place, not only in these dis-
tricts, but throughout the country, has always been
my earnest desire, and when I look round upon the
whole range of political and social questions which
have risen and are likely to rise in our day, I can
see as between these classes absolutely no serious
cause of disagreement or disunion. (Hear, hear,
and cheers.) Individuals, of course, will differ in
opinion ; that is a matter of opinion and of tempe-
rament; but if we are to measure time, not by the
lapse of years, but by the progress of ideas, we are
essentially removed from the days when speakers
Could get up at public meetings and talk about
govecuraent by a half -feudalised aristoßracy, which
looked down with contempt upon trade, which was
always ready to drag the country into quarrels and
multiply military armaments for the sake of their
relatives and connexions. H any man were to hold
that language now, one would be tempted to ask
hiin if he had fallen from the moon, as it would be
clear he understood but little of what was passing
on this earth. (Cheers and laughter.) We are
all alike interested in the maintenance of peace, in
the enforcement of public economy, in the progress
of industrial enterprise, in the lightening of taxa-
tion, and the war upon our great national enemy,
pauperism. (Hear.) Material interests are not, I
trust, with any of us of primary importance, but
even as regards material interest you cannot enrich
the landlord without giving a stimulus to manu-
facturers and commerce, and you certainly cannot
enrich the trader and manufacturer without a
considerable portion of his gain passing into the
pockets of the owners of the soil. That is the econo-
mical view of the question from a social point of
view. While I see on the one hand, from the High-
lands of Scotland to the coast of Devonshire and
Cornwall, in every part of the country, among the
improving and most useful, and often the most in-
fluential landowners, those whose fortunes have been
more or less recently acquired in the great towns,
so, on the other hand, I perceive among the landed
classes a gradual but well-nigh complete disappear-
ance of that prejudice which undoubtedly existed 40
or 50 years ago against bringing up their children
to industrial occupations. (Hear, hear.) I have a
right, then, if this be so, to assert that co-operation,
and even, so to call it, that fusion between those two
great interests has taken place. And now allow me
to proceed, with a very few remarks, to the duty
which your chairman imposed upon me, that of pro-
posing one of the toasts of the evening. I shall ask
you to drink " Prosperity to the Liverpool Chamber
of Commerce." It is singular that, while English
commerce well-nigh equals that of all Europe put
together, England has cared less than almost any
other country to promote these local associations for
the discussion of mercantile matters. On the conti-
nent I need not tell you they are of considerable
antiquity and importance. In France they date
from the beginning of the 17th century, Marseilles
}?axing taken the lead, and, with short interruptions
during revolutionary periods, they have existed ever
since. Those French Chambers of Commerce are
niore under State control than we should think de-
sirable, but their functions are extensive, and their
influence is considerable. (Hear.) I saw lately reports
from those of Havre and Bordeaux, andl don'tknow
which struck me as more remarkable—:-the variety of
the subjects discussed, or the ability with which they
were treated. In Belgium these institutions are nume-
rous and active. In the New IVorld they flourish. I
have been able, through the kindness of a friend, to
examine the last volume of. reports of the New York