The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-11 00:00:00

ciated local services, and gladly acknowledged that 1
they had been most indefatigably rendered by the hon.
member Mr. Hadfield. But it was on broader and more
imperial grounds that their members were chosen, and
he should deeply regret if the constituencies of this
country should return their members for merely local
considerations. The highest ambition for a man in this
country was to be returned freely, absolutely freely, by
a large constituency, without any local tie or connexion
whatever. The tendency of public affairs appeared to
be to concentrate the interests of the country more and
more in the bands of the House of Commons, and if
large constituencies were even directly or indirectly to
ignore the services of men of large minds, honest pur-
poses, and incorruptible integrity, because of their ex-
tent of local connexion, it would reduce greatly the
weight of that house. (Cheers.)
Mr. M. MILNES—When I remember how many mem-
bers this West Riding sends to Parliament, who are
worthy ot:all your regard and interest, I do regret that
I alone stand here to answer for them. I feel thankful-
ness, however, in seeing next me, in renewed health and
vigour, my friend Mr. Roebuck—(cheers)—and I await
with the interest you all do the repetition of those bright
metallic, incisive sentences with which he delights us in
the House of Commons, and in which he so fairly repre-
sents the staple commodities of this town. (Cheers and
laughter.) Though I may have pleasure in that, I do
regret that I do not see the face of one so familiar in the
House of Commons, and who, though not now exactly
now a member of Parliament, was yet long known to
you as such—l mean my friend John Parker. (Cheers.)
I am delighted to find so many associates in that feeling.
Gentlemen, the circumstance which comes to the mind
of every man who rises here or elsewhere at the present
moment is the war. We are all for the time being, when-
ever we come before the public, ministers of war ; and
it is so, because the event has come upon us so strangely,
even though not suddenly, that we, a pacific, benevolent,
and commercial nation—that we of all men desirous to
buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market—we
who never had a notion of injuring anybody, if at the
same time we did not injure ourselves—(laughter)--
we find ourselves at war with one of the greatest
Potentates of Europe, and going on step by step to
a series of consequences which I believe to have been
inevitable. This is indeed an event so appalling, so
engrossing, that it is just you should bear the repetition
of it. I will not, however, repeat what has fallen from
those who have preceded me, but I will call your at-
tention to circumstances connected with that war
which I think in many degrees palliate the atrocity of
the event, and reconcile us to the dispensation. In this
great contest in which we are engaged, I cannot help
seeing two benefits that have already accrued. The
one is the great and true alliance between the people
of England (cheers) not an alliance of casual
Sovereigns—not an alliance of evanescent dynasties,
but the foundation of an alliance of the peoples of the
two countries. (Cheers.) And when we read in the
publics newspapers of the extreme intimacy which takes
place between the soldiers of the two armies—that they
exchange their clothes in a state of happy unconscious-
ness, and that next morning when the English soldier
appears at drill it is with a pair of blue trousers, and
the French soldier in that astonishing vestment, the kilt
—(laughter and cheers)—we cannot suppose the trans-
mutation can take place to that extent without the hap-
piest and profoundest feelings of cordiality. But, never-
theless, the serious side of the question will present it-
self to us, and it is, indeed, a most solemn cause for
thankfulness. Even on this very day we have heard of
our gallant soldiers embarking for the Crimea along with
those who were heretofore considered and held to be our
ancient enemies, but whom God has made our firmest
friends. (Cheers.) We have had all along an erroneous
notion about the empire of Russia. We have heard
about the conspiracy and the connivance of the several
members of our Government, who it was thought had
such an enormous respect for the Emperor of Russia
that they would never go to war with him. Why, the
truth of the matter is, that the Emperor of Russia was
always held up by all the practical statesmen of this
country whom I have ever known to he one of the best
and most conservative of Sovereigns that the world was
ever blessed with. There are few men indeed who have
that absolute power with which the Emperor of Russia
is invested. There are men who believe that power is
in itself a source of danger. It makes weak men wicked,
and wicked men mad ; and there are men who believe
that the time is come when that power will burst through
all the dams which circumstances have raised about it.
(Cheers.) Therefore, we learn this great and beneficial
lesson—that in power modified by reasonable extensions
of the liberal institutions of a country we have not only
the best safety-valve against all internal commotion, but
also the best security for the peace of Europe and the
maintenance of that balance of power which is nothing
more or less than the defence of the weak against the
strong. (Cheers.) I stand here very much of a stranger,
but yet I feel that I am so entirely a Yorkshireman that
lam really no stranger. My family and yours both
come from the edge of Derbyshire, but we have become
such goad Yorkshiremen that we have forgotten all
about it. It has been alluded to that I have taken some
interest in the current literature of the country. I can
only say to you, gentlemen, that in doing that I have
found the greatest solace and delight of my life. And I
am sure you will appreciate the pleasures of literature
in this town of Sheffield, where, though you may be con-
sidered as devoted to habits of the most practical com-
mercial nature—where you can boast of a people the
most industrious on the face of the globe—where you
send your goods all over the world, so that Sheffield
writes its mark upon every table of the continent of
Europe, of America, and of Australia—you yet have
raised your own statue to Ebenezer Elliott, and have
paid your last respects to the memory of Montgomery.
(Cheers.) You who, combining with that great commer-
cial activity which surprises and delights the world the
exercise of those intellectual pursuits which make you
the superior manufacturers that you are—which make
the artisans of this town such people as can raise a peo-
ple's-college, which I believe will be a model institution
for the artisans of this country, and one which will ex-
ercise an influence and produce moral effects which it is
impossible for any one here to conceive. (Cheers.) I
thank you (the Master Culter) for your kindness in in-
viting me here to-day. I shall be very glad to meet you
at all times, and prove the interest and sympathy I feel
in the work of intellectual culture. And I trust, having I
found myself here to-day, I shall have the pleasure some
other time of talking to you upon other matters which
it is far too late this evening to enter into. (Cheers.)
After some further toasts the meeting separated.