The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-16 00:00:00

DOUZTON M.P., AND 7.11 E ELEC-
T 0 RS' OF LAMBETH.

Mr. Do ulton, the junior M.P. for Lambeth, mbt
his c°ll`,ltituents last evening, at the Horns Tavern,
Kein-ington; on his own invitation, to address them
as t,o the present state of public affairs, and his con-
&act and votes in parliament since his election.
Mr. R. ELLINGTON was called to the chair, and
having briefly introduced the," busitiess of the meet-
ing,

Mr. DOULTON,
by a very crowded who was warmly welcomed
was the first
. room, observed that though this
. tiiine on which be had met them in the
chahopedracter
e which he stood before them that night
hi -it would not be the last. He had a very
" opinion of the wholesomeness of meetings like
the, present, where the member stood before his con-
s'i.ituente to render an account of his doings, and
explain his views. Although when the practice was
first introduced by Mr. Williams, he believed it
beneath the dignity of a member of parliament, it
Was now very gesierally followed by Conservatives
as well as Li}Serals, end even Cabinet Ministers did
not think 'it impolitic to give such explanations of
their conduct and principles. He reminded them
that 'Lie did not enter Parliament till half the ses-
sie,n was °yea-, and therefore he had fewer defici-
ences to e.v•Aplain away and fewer acts to boast of
than meetly others. The first question which occu-
Pi" P erliamentary attention after he entered the
Itnrise of Commons was what was called the " De-
fe•aces of the Country." He had entered upon the
discussion of that question totally unprejudiced and
in a position to form en accurate judgment upon the
facts and argumen.Se adduced. The question was
Whether it was 'oetter to spend money on fixed for-
tresses or on 'floating and moveable batteries; or,
In other weirds, ships. After hearing all that Was
to be sair:t on the one side and the nthvr, be ex Lived
at the c,onclusion that it would be better in every way
to spend the money parliament voted upon moveable
for'cresses or ships rather than upon fixed fortifica-
t;,ons, under the batteries of Which, if we were in-
vaded, it was quite clear tilat no enemy would land.
It was urged by she Government that these
fortifications had 'peen already commenced, and
many millions expended, while money would be
lost and way ged unless they were completed. There
Was no aralibt some force in that argument, but he,
for on'a Was of opinion at the time, and still re-
Inairsed of that opinion, that it would have been
more economical, and have tended more to the safety
cf the country, to have abandoned those fortifica-
tions which had been so commenced, and spent the
money proposed to be granted in building new ships.
(Cheers...) He gave full credit to the Government for
haviSrg acted in the matter honestly and with a
Yitatv to the good of the country. The ground for
'this great expen'Aiture for defences, as they all
knew, was fear of invasion. He was not one of those
who had ever been influenced by the invasion panic,
and though he had no great faith in the Emperor of
the French, he could not deny that he had shown
the beat feeling towards this country in the cona-
Mere:jai treaty and in various other acts. But how-
ev or friendly the disposition of the Emperor was
'towards England, it must be borne in mind that he
held his crown not by the love of his people, as was
the case with the Sovereign of this country, but by
the fixed bayonets of his soldiers—(hear, hear)—and
while such a state of affairs remain in France there
was no perman,nt security for peace. It was there-
fore the duty of the Government of this country
and of Oafs Parliament,'While carrying out a strictly
rigid e,sonomy, to provide efficiently for any even-
tualf.ty that might happen. (Hear.) He had been
syoeaking not long since as to the state of France
With a Frenchman of influence, who said to him,
" Although things look so peacefully at this moment
I should not be surprised if we had within a few
days another revolution in Paris," and the conduct
of the Emperor himself showed that he was prepar-
bag for such a possibility. Turning to the church
rate question, Mr. Doulton said that there was no
occasion for the second reading of Sir J. Trelawny's
bill to have 'been lost as it was by a majority of one,
and had the Liberal party been as earnest and
detertr,ined in favour of the bill as the Conser-
yeti:yes were against it, that bill would have
been sent up to the House of Lords by quite
as great a majority as in any previous year. But
the Liberal party in Parliament were a rope of sand
—when they should pull together they always fell
to pieces. (Hear.) AP: to the 3laynooth grant, he
gg
thought that little good resulted from its annual
agitation in Parliament, but it having been brought
forward, he voted for inquiry, on the principle that
he was opposed to religious endowments by the
State generally. On the ballot question he referred
to the circumstances under which Mr. Berkeley
moved his ballot resolutions last session, and how by
the mover and seconder abstaining from voting, the
bill was thrown out on the second reading. He
held that the ballot was necessary to secure freedom
of election. There had been recently two elections,
'viz., for Totnes and Southampton. At Totnes, Mr.
Dent, the Conservative, spoke against the ballot and
obtained the show of hands, but although the Con-
servative press hat prophesied the triumphant re-
turn of that gentleman, he polled only 5 votes, and
then retired from the poll, and in a valedictory ad-
dress he said that certain territorial influence which
had been all along looming in the distance, was at
the last moment brought to bear against him, which
meant that the Duke of Somerset, who had hitherto
been content with returning one member for Tot-
nes, now felt it necessary to send two, in conse-
quence of the straits to which Lord Palmerston's
Government was reduced. Could there possibly be
a stronger argument in favour of the ballot ? (Hear.)
The next question upon which he (Mr. Doulton)
gave a vote was that of the embankment of the
Thames. He rejoiced that the bill, as first intro-
duced in the House of Commons, which would have
left that part of the shore between Hungerford-
bridge and Westminster-bridge unembanked, was
amended. He did not know why it was brought
forward in that shape, unless it was to conciliate
some powerful interest—(hear, hear)—but he op-
posed it because indirectly it affected Lambeth,
which he hoped would have the benefit of the
embankment on the south side of the
Thames before long. They were entitled to it,
for they had been taxed long enough for metro-
politan improvements without sharing in them.
He voted against the Night Poaching Bill, which
had converted all the policemen in the country into
game-preservers and gamekeepers. That bill ought
never to have passed, and it never would have passed
had the liberal members evinced the same energy
and perseverance that the Conservative members
did. These latter stayed till 3 and 4 o'clock in the
morning to vote in favour of the measure, without
losing a man ; but although the Liberals promised
to remain also to oppose it, they always dropped
away one after the other. After a short reference
t,t' the education question as settled by Parliament
in the last session, and to the income-tax, which, he
said, would remain so long as we had an unreformed
-iarli4raent, he turned to the question of Italy, de-
g himself in favour of Italian unity, and eulo-
gising Garibaldi, who, he said, history would show
that in the present catastrophe of proceedings terminating in the
fooled, and then betrayed.
&listen:mate' Garibaldi was first be-
He was no advocate for
war, but he thought the time had arrived when
the queHtion should be seriously considered by the
Engiish Governm•nt and the Englishpeople whe-
ther Italy was to remain Pesinanentlpy. :French
province. (Ilear.) The Ameri .
American civil war was
deeply to be deplored, and he regretted that no
break Yet appeared in the dark cloud that over-
shadowed
which
fatthz
the
.Americanthisl condtinfenyth. R was strange,
that
however, had
sacrificesln to abolish slavery,erty:
made such
anywhere expressed in favourY
,uld
the confederacy of slave-
owners.Southernbeconfederadcys—ome
disapprobation,) be..
was the insults that the
(Cheers, an ,
country; and the se-
cond the first reasonon
this
North hod heaped up
with the material inte-
cond had something to
sad mored.
rests. Slavery- do
to do with the civil war
I;ut while the South
than many people imagine
openly avowed that the black
unfortunately
man was an inferior
being, and must be kept in bondage,
the North was not sound upon t
their cause en
the question. Would
to God they were, and had placed
principle • ' rather than expediency. (Cheers.)
this, however, there could be no question, that