The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-30 00:00:00

posed, and declined. But with regard to all of them—
having acted with them through all my life—l felt sure
that if there was formed a firm Government-4f these par-
ties saw what they considered as a liberal course, adopted
—if they saw that liberal course tempered with that mode-
ration which had always characterised the Whigs as a
party, and which was acknowledged and declared to be so
by Mr. Burke—if they saw that these principles were the
principles of Lord Aberdeen's Government—then, whether
they held office or no themselves, no consideration would
prevent them from as heartily and as willingly supporting
the Government as if they. had themselves a partin it. Sir,
I have not been deceived in the hopes which I anticipated.
I do, indeed, form part of an Administration, from which
most of them have been excluded. The administration of
Lord Aberdeen is formed, in great part, of those with
whom he formerly acted. Since the Government has been
formed, on all the general principles of domestic government
we have been agreed. I cannot of course pretend, after
what has passed to-night, that we have been generally suc-
cessful in the measures that we have proposed. Bnt I
think we are engaged at present in an extremely difficult
task, apart from any measures of reform in Parliament—
of alteration of oaths—of dealing with corrupt practices at
elections. Should. I come to be of opinion that the
conduct of the war cannot be safely left in the hands
of the present Government—that the Government can-
not carry on the war with that vigour which makes
war successful, and by which peace can alone be rendered
safe and honourable to this country—l shall cease to be a
member of the Government. 'But, considering that to be
the immediate, great, and pressing question to this coun-
try, no taunts of the right hon. gentleman shall make me
leave the post which I at present occupy— a post which,
God knows, is one of far more labour and anxiety than of
pleasure, profit, or emolument. (Loud cheers.) Unless I
were convinced that the present Government is more likely
than any other which can be formed to carry on the war
with success and to finish it by an honourable peace, I should
cease to be a member of the Government. But as long as I
remain under that impression, I trust that the house and
the country will give a fair interpretation to my conduct.
(Cheers.) I rely upon this country, knowing that, while
most enlightened on general questions, yet it is occasion-
ally apt to be misled, now as in format times, with regard
to the conduct of public men, yet I rely upon the justice
of this country, which has hardly ever failed in the end to
construe rightly the actions of public men. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. B. OSBORNE—Sir, I am convinced that the senti-
ments which fell from the hon. and gallant member for
Huntingdon (Colonel Peel) have expressed the sense of the
house upon those numerous matters which have been
dragged into this debate—as Sancho Panza used to drag in
his proverbs—by the right hon. gentleman the member for
Buckinghamshire, and I shall not attempt, after the speech
of the noble lord the member for London, to follow that
right hon. gentleman through all those topics. A proper
time for that will no doubt arrive, when I shall be able to
show the house and the country that the statements of the
right hon. gentleman are not so exactly correct as they
would appear to be on his showing. But the right hon.
gentleman—who has been, to use his own expression,
coined for the occasion, the Finance Minister of this coun-
try—has risen in his place and given an unqualified and
unconditional denial to an assertion of the noble lord with
respect to a measure on which he is supposed to entertain
sincere convictions. I think the right hon. gentleman had
better refresh his mind previous to giving these unequi-
vocal contradictions. What are the facts of the case ? I
shall not dilate on the right hon. gentleman's observations
with respect to divisions—l shall not dilate upon the right
hon. gentleman's studied silence, except upon one occasion
—on what he calls his peculiar and mysterious feelings.
We have seen the right hon. gentleman lurking, like a
guilty spirit, about the lobbies of this house while the de-
bate was proceeding. I have seen him myself when, to do
him justice, he came down to vote for the Jews. But
there was an occasion ; we find that in 1849 the right hon.
gentleman was absent. That, however, might have passed.
I should not have presumed to make a great point of his
mere absence. But what will the house say when they
find that the right hon. gentleman, who gives such an un-
qualified denial to the assertion of the noble lord, that on
one occasion the right hon. gentleman, notwithstanding
his peculiar and mysterious feelings on the subject, voted
against the bill ? (Hear, hear.) I shall be happy to re-
fresh the right hon. gentleman, who is usually so accu-
rate, upon this subject. It was in 1850, on a motion that
the house should pledge itself in the following session to
take into its serious .consideration the form of the oath of
abjuration as it affected the Jews, with a view to relieve
them from the disabilities under which they laboured. That
was a pretty distinct motion for the right hon. gentleman
' to vote against—he who complained that the Jews had not
' a form of oath to themselves—who insisted that Christianity
was under such great obligations to the Jews that they
ought to enter Parliament in a way peculiar to themselves.
And yet upon that question the ayes were 142 and the
noes were 192 ; and among the " noes" is to be found the
name of the Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli. (Hear.) If
the right hon. gentleman has strong feelings upon this
subject—which I doubt —(eheers)—he is bound to come
down to the house and introduce a measure himself for
the emancipation of the Jews. ' But how stands the case?
He denies that he was ever absent from a division on the
Jewish question. I have proved that he was not only ab-
sent on one occasion, but that on another he actually voted,
against the measure. (" No," from Mr. Disraeli.) If this
—(holding up " Hansard ")—is a misprint, then I retract
—if it is not, then the right hon. gentleman has been mis-
informed in giving the denial he did. (Laughter.) I say
to him, in conclusion, if he wishes his name to be as clear
to the country as he lately told the gazing public the noble
lord's was, he had better not again hazard such rash asser-
tions as this. (Laughter.)
Mr. DISRAELI—I do not mean to go again into this ar-
gument; but I must say at once that I never did absent
myself from the house to avoid the Jewish question. The
honourable gentleman has referred to one division in which
my name does not appear. It is sufficient for me to say
that, at that time, owing to a severe 'indisposition, I was
absent for some time from Parliament. (Cheers.) Of
i course that was not what the noble lord meant to charge
against me. His charge was, that I left the house to avoid
the vote. With regard to the other point to which the
honourable gentleman has alluded, it is impossible for me
to rebut the charge without going back to the period.
Mr. OSBORNE (reaching forward the volume)—Hand
the right honourable gentleman the book.
. Mr. DISRAELI—I do not want to see the book. (Laugh-
ter.) It is easy for gentlemen to laugh, but that does not
alter the facts of the case. I remember that at a morning
sitting the question was discussed, and there were some
twenty divisions, and I voted, I think, on every occasion
with the noble lord; but there were some cross divisions,
when, it is possible, I may not have voted with the hon.
gentleman the Secretary for the Admiralty. I remember
very well there were a great number of divisions, and there
was one resolution moved, I think, by Vice-Chancellor Sir
Page Wood, that Baron Rothschild should now be ad-
mitted to take the oaths at the table. To that I objected,
and, with the noble lord, I voted against the motion. I
cannot be sure of the particular vote, but of this I am sure,
that if the matter be investigated, what I have stated will
be found to be substantially correct. (Cheers.)
Mr. WALPOLE—I do not rise to interfere in this dis-
cussion, but I wish to make an observation on one or two
points. The first is with regard to the last obseriation
made by the hon. gentleman the Secretary to the Admiralty.
I have not looked through the division lists, but having
watched pretty closely, and taken my share in all the dis-
cussions on this question, I think I may say, from recol-
lection, that the vote of my right honourable friend, to
which the hon. gentleman alluded, was with reference to
the question whether Baron Rothschild should then take
his seat in the house. (No, no.) I cannot be sure of
the exact occasion ; but I am bound to say this, whatever
may have been the actual division, I know, certainly,' that
no one in this house is more sincere than my right hon.
friend in his desire to obtain for the Jews admission to
this house. I know that, in private as well as in public ;
and though I have been opposed, and unfortunately shall
be always, I am afraid, opposed to my right hon. friend
on this question, yet I know and am bound to declare that
if there is one thing more than another for which my right
hon. friend is entitled to the respect of both sides of
the house, it is for tho manly and honourable way—(cheers)
—in which he has come forward in the support of the
Jewish race ; and I am bound to say that, if it were not
for the manly support which he has given to that question,
his position, if he had consulted his own interests, would
have been higher—if it could possibly have been higher—
than the position which he now occupies. (Cheers.) But
his friends have lost confidence in him because he stood by
his principles, though they do not agree with him on that
particular point, and they never will withdraw their confi-
dence from him if he pursues his course in the same manly
and honourable way which he has hitherto done. (Cheers.)
The other point on which I wish to make an observation
is with reference to a sentiment which fell from the noble
lord. The noble lord said that the reason why he opposed
Lord Derby's Government was because that Government
had acted in a manner which was unconstitutional, and in
a different way from that in which any Government had
previously acted in the history of this country. The noble
lord, I think, will bear in mind the first debate which took
place after Lord Derby's Government came into power. On
that occasion I made a few remarks, pointing out the pe-
culiar position in which we stood. It was acknowledged
that we had not a majority in the house at that
moment ; and I said then what I say now, that the
reason why Lord Derby was in power was, fit st,
because the noble lord opposite had resigned; and
second, because there was no other party strong enough
to take the reins of power except the party of Lord Derby.
I remember that I added—and I thought the observation
was acquiesced inand approved of by the noble lord—that
if the house had no confidence in Lord. Derby's Government
they might bring that question to a vote, and that it would
be for us to consider, in case we were defeated on that
vote, whether it would be incumbent upon us to resign
office, or to take the sense of the country by a dissolution.
I am sure I added that Lord Derby and his colleagues had
no interest in remaining in power for a single moment,
unless they had the confidence of Parliament. But I stoutly
contended that the question of confidence had never been
Put to the house ; that we had pursued our measures, and
that we had obtained majorities on every important occa-
sion ; that we were therefore doing nothing contrary to the
constitutional responsibility of Ministers—that we were
acting from a sense of what was duo to Parliament and to
the country ; and that we had no intention of holding office
in any other manner than as the constitution prescribes. I
believe the noble lord and his colleagues thought, down to
the very time when the vote of Parliament was recorded
against us, that it was a doubtful question whether we had
the confidence of Parliament or not. Whether or not we
deserved the confidence of Parliament during the limited
periode we remained in office, whether we conducted our-
st!oenvsetsitlai:mviallnnsearythat has or has not been beneficial to
brought I thcio;trY, histerYtahlaotnewweill determine; but this house,
against( eaet and
as
. walked in the paths of the
)that the charge which the noble lord has
us is a charge which we have not de-
served. Mr. BRIGHT—I shall not detain the house for many
minutes. The discussionas has been more lively than it has
bbeeetwn
efeonr Bsomentionbeleilt lord and
the
right hon. member for
ina
consequence of the encounter
Buckinghamshire. I will not
though I think the noble lord hassaY who has had the best of it,
not come out of the discus-
sion, without some scars. (Cheers and laughter.)
I agree
en-
tirely with what the noble lord says as to the
NothingintivesN vithwhich he took office under Lord Aberdeen.
has happened, or can happen, will make me believe but that
that
the noble lord accepted office from the influence of motives
which were highly honourable to him. At the same time
it is impossible to disguise the fact that the elements of the
Government were such, and to this day continue such, as
to prevent the formation of a Government that can act for
the welfare of the country. I recollect an ingenious gen-
tleman, and one too who was a great friend .of the noble
lord, expressing his opinionifthatbt
etyhebnplryeseanytoiGdeodvepronlmitieenst
would get on admirably _
(Laughter.) And that is the course which the Govern-.
ment has pursued. One
yearsgreatquesdtiiovnidhe(aispbearetniesseitntletti—a
a question which had for free trade,
all those_
country—l mean the questifne of free trade, and all hose
questions that turned upon it, ouch ao related to the repeal