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

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 7, 1865.

Catholic priesthood, and against this conspiracy
they had set their faces, and even in many cases de-
nounced it from the altar. We might also depend
upon it that when men had nothing to complain of
—when they had merely a sentimental grievance
like that of the Fenians, that the Celt had been sub-
jugated by the Saxon—conspiracies were of no im-
portance whatever. To drive a nation into rebellion
there was required the iron hand of grievousmisrule.
This observation applied, however, only to white
races, because we had recently seen a negro insur-
rection in Jamaica, where men who had been placed
in a position of perfect political equality with their
white brethren, and who even possessed that from
which the £9 householder in this country was ex-
cluded—(a laugh)—absolutely organised for next
Christmas-day the massacre of every white inhabi-
tant upon the island, secretly impelled doubtless by
that innate jealousy which the black man felt of the
innte superiority of the white man. When we thus
found men who were suffering from no grievance at
all, but who were placed in a perfect position of
equality, both politically and socially, with the
whites, rising in insurrection and committing atro-
cities from the very perusal of which most men's
minds revolted, he was surprised to find a party in
this country with minds so peculiarly, and, he trusted,
so exceptionally, constituted that their sympathies
were not with their own white race, but rather with
the black miscreants who had indulged in such
abominable excesses. The principal point which
had been raised against the Government of Jamaica
was that Mr. Gordon was taken from Kingston,
where he had given himself up, into a district where
martial law existed, and that he was there tried and
executed. But it was not fair to condemn the Go-
vernment for the course which they had taken with-
out knowing all the facts. Where did Mr. Gordon
come from ? Did he come from a proclaimed dis-
trict? If he did, the Government had a perfect right
to deliver him up to the proclaimed district from
which he had escaped. He did not wish to say that
an inquiry should not take place, but if it did take
place, he trusted that it would be conducted in a
spirit of sympathy with a Government placed in a
difficult position. Although we must look upon this
insurrection in Jamaica with feelings of regret, there
was one country, at all events, which would derive
a seasonable and salutary lesson from it; he alluded
to the United States, now engaged in the recon-
struction of their Constitution, and who had',
always found this question of the negro one of great
difficulty and danger. He did not wish to express
an opinion as to the internal affairs of the United
States, because in this country we were too much
in the habit of giving advice and counsel as to
foreign affairs and foreign countries when they
wished us anywhere else; but he could not refrain from
offering his humble meed of approbation of the con-
duct pursued by the President, Mr. Johnson. He
believed Mr. Johnson was pursuing a policy which
would again consolidate the shattered framework of
society in the United States, and that he was using
the best means to reconcile the conflicting elements
with which he had to deal. While the legislature of
the United States was to be engaged in the duty of
reconstructing their constitution, it would appear
that the legislature of this country was to be occu-
pied with the somewhat less felicitous task of pulling
to pieces our own constitution, for we could not dis-
guise from ourselves the fact that we werethreatened
with some measure of innovation called a reform
bill. The recent appointments of the Government,
although of a subordinate character, showed in what
direction they were tending, and he believed that the
reform bill proposed would not be of a very mode-
rate character. The Government had appointed Mr.
Goschen Vice-President of the Board of Trade, and
they had made Mr. Forster an under secretary.
From the first named gentleman he believed they
would receive no inconsiderable accession of strength,
while from the latter they would receive a consider-
able accession of weakness. (Laughter.) Although
he (Mr. Peacocke) had no doubt that Mr. Forster
would follow in the footsteps of many who had gone
before him, and that from being one of the most
boisterous of demagogues, he would subside into the
most placid of placemen. (Laughter.) It would be a
mere matter of speculation to discuss the details of
the reform bill, but come that bill when it might he
would venture to express a hope that the great Con-
servative 'Carty would use their united efforts to re-
move its obnoxious features, to sof ten down its ob-
jectionable outlines, and to shape them in accordance
with our existing institutions. If he reollectedrightly,
the Emperor Nerva was deified by the Roman people
for conferring upon them briperium et fibulas. lie
did not ask the British to deify their constitution,
but he asked them to respect and perpetuate those
priceless blessings which, under its mild and benig-
nant sway, this country had enjoyed—liberty un-
equalled, prosperity unrivalled, empire unsurpassed.
(Loud cheers.)
Mr. EARLE, M.P., also responded, and observed
that Mr. Peacocke, in his eloquent speech, had
alluded to many of those subjects of great interest
which at present occupied the public mind. If
amongst those subjects there was one at this time
more prominent than another, it was the question
of Parliamentary reform. When he and his consti-
tuents parted on the hustings reform v 43 hardly a
question which came within the sphere of practical
politics, but since then great events had occurred,
and reform had become the great question of the
day. There were some, he knew, who looked for-
ward to a measure of Parliamentary reform as
though we might expect from it a nicer balance and
adjustment of the conflicting tendencies of the public
mind. He believed those persons would be very
much disappointed ; and equally vain, he believed,
was the hope of those who expected from a further
1 extension or modification of the act of 1832 a more
ample representation of the refinements and curiosi-
ties of opinion. Those who sought Parliamentary
reform, and who, he supposed, would one day carry
it, had much ruder objects in view ; their views
were of a levelling and democratic character. Ad-
mitting that Parliamentary reform was necessary,
or even desired by the country, he must say that he
thought the evils of change were greatly aggravated
when that change was of so limited and partial a
character as to have not even the semblance of fina-
lity. He thought no disturbance was so much to be
deprecated as one which did not offer even for one
generation the prospect of an enduring settlement.
We had lately read in the—not to use a stronger ex-
pression—forcible speech of Mr. Bright, what wasthe
programme of the Liberal party ; but he (Mr. Earle)
was struck with a great omission in that programme.
Mr. Bright advocated, as a matter of necessity, a
considerable extension of the franchise ; but if we
looked into the speech which he delivered
the other day, we searched in vain for any ob-
jects which he expected to attain by that extension
butmea-
sureswhichhemeasuresthoughtoughttowhichpassed.at they
already a majority;
not, therefore, thoseajotymrieas; nuraesdthit could
tAullrd
be to carry
.
Bright wanted an ext
cum' of the franchise. Again,
Mr. Bright could not
want an extension of the
franchise in order to diminish
the influecce of the
Tory party, for he said the Tory party was a " de-
caying faction." (Laughter.) What he (Mr. Earle)
inferred from this reserve of Mr. Bright, which was
so unlike him, was that the objects which Air. Bright
had in view were objects which he dare not even
mention to the present constituencies of the empire.
In the sneech to which he (Mr. Earle) had been re-
ferring, Mr. Bright :made a very elaborate attack
upon the whole history and antecedents of the Tory
party. He said that during the
last 40 years they
had been the opponents of every measure which bad
contributed to the welfare of the country ; and in
nerving himself for his great attack he began by
throwing out those insinuations and repeaticg those
remarks which he had so often made upon the con-
duct of the Tory party during the great revolution-
ary war at the end of the last century and beginning
of this. Well, he (Mr. Earle) believed that it was
generally admitted that at the time Mr. Pitt and his
followers engaged the country in those great wars
there was an attempt on the part of the first Empe-
ror to establish a universal empire in Europe ; and
when Mr. Bright told us that the course adopted. by
the Tory party was one which might have led to a
revolution, he (Mr. Earle) answered that if the Go-
vernment of the country had
been conducted during
the period to which he had referred upon the prin-
ciples which Mr. Bright

fallen under the still worse evil of foreign domina-
tion. Mr. Bright said that Mr. Pitt and his fol-
lowers left us nothingbutthelegacy of an enormous
debt ; but he (Mr. Earle) believed that this was not
the case, but that they left us the British empire
with all the blessings of domestic liberty and secu-
rity abroad. (Hear) This was a noble estate, which
was well equal to the burthens which 20 years of
military glory had entailed upon it. (Cheers.)
Mr. TUFFNELL proposed " The Conservative
Members for the County of Essex." (Loud cheers.)
Mr. Du CANE, M.P., replied, and after discussing
local politics at some length, said we had recently
had a great demonstration from that great authority
on public affairs, Mr. John Bright, who had treated
us apparently to prophecy. Mr. Bright told us that
the Conservative party was numerically weaker in
the present Parliament than it ever was before, and
he prophesied at the same time that the days of the
Conservative party were numbered. If hard words
could break any bones—although we know very
well that they could not—he wondered that a single
Conservative was at the present moment alive in the
land ; for he thought that ever since those legendary
days when a good old archbishop cursed a little
jackdaw which had stolen his ring—(laughter)—
never had there fallen from the lips of mortal man
such a thundering anathema as that which Mr.
Bright pronounced upon all those who had the mis-
fortune to differ from him in opinion. In the words
of the " Ingoldsby Legends"—
"He cursed them living, he cursed them dying,
Never was heard such a terrible curse ;
But what gave rise to no little surprise,
Nobody seemed one penny the worse."
(Laughter.) There was an old adage which said that
when you had got a bad case you should abuse the
plaintiff's attorney--(laughter)--and he (Mr. Du
Cane) supposed that Mr. Bright's vituperation of
the Conservative party and its leaders might be taken
as a sign that he had in reality got a very bad case,
and that he found that the country was more
opposed, if possible, than ever to those sweeping and
organic chargeswhich he recommended. He (Mr. Du
Cane) confessed that be differed from Mr. Bright's
views as to the numerical strength of the Conservative
party at the present moment. When he had the
honour of being first returned for North Essex, the
Liberal party in Essex alone possessed four seats out
of the ten, and he took his scat in a Parliament
which gave Lord Palmerston a clear majority of from
80 to 100 members. If ever there was a period
when a lengthened tenure of office might have been
predicted for the Liberal party, he thought that was
the time. But we knew very well what had hap-
pened—how in six months from that time mutiny
and dissatisfaction arose in the Liberal ranks, how
they turned round upon Lord Palmerston, and how
Lord Derby succeeded Lord Palmerston with the
approbation of the country. if such a thing as that
happened to Lord Palmerston's Government during
the life of Lord Patmerston, what chance of cohesion
was there for the present Government ? What we
had now to deal with was Lord Palmerston's Go-
vernment without Lord Palmerston. (Hear, hear.)
Lord Palmerston's Government without Lord Pal-
merston had now to face a new Parliament with a
disunited following, many of whom had hitherto
owned no Liberal tie and professed no Liberal
theory but allegiance to Lord Palmerston alone.
He (Mr. Du Cane) must confess that he did not
consider Lord Russell's position at the present mo-
ment to be exactly a bed of roses, and he was rather
inclined to say—" Pity the sorrows of a poor old
man." (Laughter.) An eminent French political
writer said—" There is no worse position for a
Government than to have to deal with hopes which
are at once ardent and vague, for there are no
people who, perhaps, are so difficult to govern as
those who have immense desires without exactly
knowing what they desire." He (Mr. Du Cane)
believed that these words not inaptly represented
the position of Lord Russell and his Government,
and he was not surprised to see signals of
distress being paid out from the ship of
State. He was not surprised to be told
one day that a great effort was being made to
woo the smiles of a rising Conservative statesman ;
he was not surprised to find another day that the
Government had finally resolved to lend itself to
the fascinations of its Radical supporters; and he
was • not surprised to read the imploring language
in which Lord Russell prayed his Mansion-
house audience for a fair trial, and for forbearance
at their hands. He would be a bold man who at-
tempted to prophesy what the future might bring
forth, but he believed that forbearance and a
fair trial would be readily accorded by the Conser-
vative party, and that Lord Russell had not so much
to dread the factious opposition of his open and
honest enemies as the disaffection and disunion of
his so-called friends. He (Mr. Du Cane) believed
that the days of political inaction were passt and
gone, and that stirring times and great questions
were in store for us. He should be found as hitherto
serving in the ranks of that party which he believed,
in spite of Mr. Bright's maledictions, was destined
yet to a lengthened and brilliant career—a party
which he believed to be not the less a lever to the
cause of sound progress because it had shown in
times past that it had the strength and power to re-
sist successfully all sweeping changes and organic
innovations, and to arrest sometimes the car of
progress in the fatal descent down the slope of de-
mocratic revolution. (Cheers.)
Mr. SELWYN, M.P., also responded. The hon.
gentleman referred in some detail to the circumstances
of his election, and proceeded to show that if ever
there was a time when those who held Conservative
opinions ought to be prepared for action, it was the
present. Death had removed that great statesman
wbom men of all political opinions respected, whose
Conservative tendencies were a guarantee to Con-
servatives for the moderate policy of the Whig-Ra-
dical party, but whose death had left the vessel of
the State to drift on to the rocks of democracy. For
his own part, he (Mr. Selwyn) contended that we
ought to raise the man to the franchise, and not to
debase the franchise to the man. There were also
various lateral ways of extending the franchise, but
really to lower the franchise as the Radicals advised
would be certain to destroy that constitutional form
of government which had done so much for this
country. it was not only with the question of Par-
liamentary Reform that Conservative would have to
deal, but rumours were afloat that attacks were to
be made on the Church. He thought with regard
to church rates that a great deal of irritation and
discord might be avoided by an alteration in the
law as it now stood ; but if a change were to be
made, let there be some guarantee fOr the stability of
those institutions which he had been brought up to
venerate. Referring to the cattle plague the hon.
gentleman argued that some compensation ought
to be made to those agriculturists whose beasts
were ordered to be slaughtered. There was a
precedent for this, he contended, in the compensation
made by the Government in 1745. At the same time
he thought farmers ought also to endeavour to help
themselves by adopting the principles of mutual in-
surance. The sufferings endured by the farmers in
consequence of the cattle plague were also, he argued,
so many additional reasons for the repeal of the malt
tax, and he trusted that malt tax repeaters would be
up and doing, and show by their perseverance that
they were determined to bring public opinion to bear
upon the subject. (Hear, hear.)
Lord E. CECIL, M.P., " followed on the same
Bide." The noble lord said we had had some stirring
events during the last five months. We had had a
rather
indiminishing. plague such as England had not seen for the last 100
years, and which he was sorry to say was rapidly
increasing
a outbreaklier h
l n d vhi which
only
ya hadva wanted
t ae n
attemptedd
Mr. Smith O'Brien
and
a cabbage garden to make it
supremely ridiculous. (Laughter.) We hd h a ad areal
outbreak in Jamaica, attended with all the horrors
of an Indian mutiny, which if it proved one thing
more than another, proved that negroes were unfit
for self-government ; and lastly we had to deplore
the death of Lord Palmerston. The cattle plague
was a great national calamity, and it might have
been expected that at all events the (lovernment
would have called Parliament together. The Vete-
rinary College had nothing better to recommend
than the pole-axe, and the Government, after sillily
shallying for a couple of months, shifted the question
from their own backs to an irresponsible commission.
That was not the way to treat an important class
like the landowners and tenant farmers, more espe-

cially when the Parliament elected in July might
havebeen called together in the course of the autumn.
He did not say that the great council of the nation

would have thrown fresh light upon the cure and
treatment of this disease, but he thought the mere
summoning of Parliament together would have in-
spired confidence at all events. It would have armed
Government with fresh powers if it had been found
necessary, it might have initiated a really good sys-
tem of national insurance, and it would have been
a fit and proper compliment to the great agricul-
tural interests of the country. Instead of this the
public had to wait two months before the Govern-
ment took any action whatever in the matter; but
he supposed that we must not be too hard upon the
Government, as they had lately lost their mainstay,
Lord Palmerston. It was not for him (Lord E.
Cecil) to eulogise that great departed statesman,
whose only fault was that, being a Conservative, he
called himself a Liberal ; his (Lord E. Cecil's) pro-
vince was rather with the present. Of Lord Russell,
the present Premier, it might be said that at all
events he was no novice. We knew him very well,
perhaps too well—(laughter)--and it Was not likely
that at the age of 73 he would alter either his con-
victions or his political career. He was the same
Lord John who upset the Derby Reform Bill in
1859, who three years ago was anxious to " rest and
be thankful," but who now, not content to let well
alone, had published a second edition of his work
on the English Constitution, and hinted at a Re-
form Bill. Did Lord Russell's antecedents justify
us in supposing that be would long continue to hold
the reins of office ? (A Voice—Not at all likely.)
(Laughter.) Who, then, was the coming man?
Not Mr. Gladstone; for much as he (Lord R. Cecil)
admired the right hon. gentleman's oratorical abili-
ties, he contended that his principles were not in
accordance with those of the Conservative party,
while his legislation had caused abitter feeling of dis-
content among the agricultural interest. Referring
to theprospects of Reform, the noblelord said the new
Parliament was elected as a Parliament of moderate
men, and it was not very likely that it would prove
more tolerant of a £6 franchise than its predecessors.
The time of Christmas pantomimes was coming, and
it was quite possible, that we might have a political
pantomime quite as amusing as anything ever put
upon the stage. Probably there were actors at the
Westminster Theatre to whom the parts of Pantaloon
and Harlequin were not altogether strange. Whe-
ther the new Ref orm Bill with which we were menaced
were a classic extravaganza founded upon some
ancient Greek legend, or whether it were a screaming
farce founded upon some modern matter—whether
the prologue were spoken by Mr. Bright in some of
those dulcet tones in which he was fond of address-
ing the Conservative party—(laughter)—the path
of that party was very plain, and he believed that
they would show themselves superior to the love of
office, and simply aim at promoting the best inte-
rests of the country. (Cheers.)
Captain JERVIS, M.P., also very briefly addressed
the meeting, expressing his belief in the probability
of an early dissolution of Parliament.
Several other toasts followed, and the meeting
separated.

America and England.
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