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

learned' gentleman (Sir F. Thesiger) was such as became
the occasion, and after the discussion had been carried on
for some time in the same spirit, and in the same tone.
evincing a desire upon the part of the house to put an end
to the corruption out of which these bills had arisen, the
right hon. gentleman got up, and made a violent and un-
provoked attack upon my noble friend the member for the
city of London—(hear, hear, no, no, and some confusion)—
who, upon that question, had no opportunity of replying,
but who did reply, when the question for the withdrawal
of the next bill came to be put, in obedience to the order
of the house, in a tone of moderation which afforded no
gratification whatever for that farther attack which the
e ight hon. gentleman has made, with that vehemence of
manner and of gesture and with that acrimony of tone and
of language, of which he has unfortanately, in past times,
given us so many examples. lam not going to follow the
right hon. gentleman into an examination of the measures
which he calls assaults upon the constitution. I rise in con-
sequence of the taunt which he has thrown out against my
noble friend for occupying the position he does, and for
giving to the Government of Lord Aberdeen the benefit—
and a great benefit it is—of the high position which he oc-
cupies in the estimation of the country and of this house - a
position which, I am sure, none of the invectives of the right
hon. gentleman can in the least degree impair. The right
hon. gentleman has accused my noble friend of throwing
over his colleagues, and of a tenacity in clinging to office,
to which I think is past life is the best answer. (Cheers.)
I trust tflacwhen the right hon. gentleman has been as long. ine
as
Parliament, and as long before the country n friend
friend, he will be held in as great esteem as my noble fri
is now. • I can only say that my noble friend did ree the
honour of consulting me, as one of his former colleagues,l3
when the present Government was formed, and
acceptance of his present position in that Government had
any hearty, and sincere, and cordial concurrence. I felt
—and I believe others of his late colleagues felt the same
thing—not only that he would shrink from the public
dtty which he owed the country, if heallowiendtahneyGpolernvate
e.
feehng to interfere with his taking
a share
ment, but that in consenting to take that share he would
be rendering an important service to the country. When
the right hon. gentleman talks of separation from his col-
leaves, it is fair to refer to the uniform support which
those colleagues have generally given to my noble friend
and to the Government of which he is a member; and
when he says that the Government of Lord Aberdeen
does not possess the confidence of the country, I say it is
most degrading
to the party of which the right hon. gen-
tleman is a member to make these assertions night after
night, and to shrink from putting them to the test by ap-
pealing directly to the house. (Hear, hear.)
Colonel PEEL—I trust the house will allow me to say
a few words. Unaccustomed as lam to take part in its
disci:Lesions, sitting always upon this side of the house, and
entertaining Conservative opinions, which render it impos-
sible for me to give my support to the present Government,
I never will be a party to these attacks, made to weaken
their power to carry on the war. So far from thinking
they have been guilty of connivance or credulity, I, for
one, give them my entire support in everything connected
with the war; and both in their financial measures and in
every other necessary arrangement, they may rely upon
receiving every assistance from me. (Hear, hear.)
The question was then put and agreed to.
On the motion to withdraw the third bill (that for King-
ston-upon-Hull),
Lord J. RUSSELL said, I very much regret that there
should be any necessity for my addressing the house again,
but after the charges which the right hon. gentleman
has. made, and the assertions in which he has indulged him-
self with respect to my conduct, I feel I cannot be altogether
silent when I have an opportunity of replying to the asser-
tions he has made. Let me say, however, in the first place,
that if I have done the right hon. gentleman any wrong
with respect to his absenting himself from voting, or to any
vote given by him on the subject of Jewish rights, I heartily
regret having fallen into any error on the subject. I could
refer to a division [so we understood] at which he was not
present, according to my memory, upon the subject, but
Ido not wish to enter into that kind of controversy. I
am quite persuaded that the right hon. gentleman in-
tended to serve the cause of the Jews in the course that he
has taken, and I therefore will not enter into any dispute
on that subject. (Hear, hear.) But when he accuses me
of factious opposition to Lord Derby's Government, and
attacks me for taking part in the present Government, I
must be allowed, to question the facts on which the right
hon. gentleman relies, and to deny the inference that he
has drawn. (Hear, hear.) He, accuses me of making a
factious opposition to Lord Derby's Government, and of
founding that opposition on the Militia Bill. - (Hear,
hear.) Now, sir, far from founding it on the Militia Bill,
1 did not seek the support of any of the party to which I
belong on the subject of that bill. (Hear, hear.) I came,
with mach deliberation, and after much doubt, to the con-
clusion that that measure was not a good measure, that it
was a far inferior measure to that which I had introduced,
and I voted against the second reading, stating at the
same time that I should take no part in the committee.
(Hear.) I adhered to that determination, and so far from
having, as the right honourable gentleman has said, perti-
naciously opposed the measure in committee, I took no
further part in the proceedings than making a single ob-
servation on a question which arose in the course of the
discussion ; and upon one occasion, when there was only
a majority of fourteen with respect to an essential part
of the bill, I purposely absented ,myself from the house,
and did not give my vote. (Hear.) But what I did ob-
ject to was:the new principle stated and started by Lord
Derby—that, not having the confidence of the existing
Parliament, he would not appeal to a new Parliament ;
and that, for a period of ten or eleven months, he proposed
to carry on the Government without the confidence of the
house. (Hear.) I objected certainly to that course, and
Lord Derby was himself at last obliged to confess that the
Parliament must be dissolved. as soon as the business
could be disposed of which it was absolutely necessary to
get through. Never was there so unconstitutional a prin•
ciple founded as that which was at first avowed by Lord
Derby, and till that principle was disclaimed in bolls
houses of Parliament I denounced, as I had a right to de-
nounce, his ministry as a ministry standing upon uncon-
stitutional grounds, and I declared that they were bound
either to have the confidence of the House of Commons or
not to remain in office. But the right hon. gentleman
says, with regard-to the course I took at that time, that I
constantly opposed his Government. Sir, I did not often
attend the house at that time ; sometimes I voted with
them, and that, at times when they were in considerable
difficulties ; sometimes I voted against them. But I must
tell the right hon. gentleman that that which injured the
Government of which he was a principal member was their
own conduct. (Cheers.) It was the manner in which
they carried on the Government of the country—it was
the mode in which they attempted to obtain a majority in
Parliament which destroyed confidence in them and finally
ruined their power. (Loud cheers.) Well, but says the
right hon. gentleman, I opposed his plan of finance on the
ground that it made a difference in the impost between
different sources of income. (Hear.) Sir, I did state
that I had doubts upon the subject, and that the proposi-
tion was entirely new. Sir, I took no part in the de-
bate by which his Government was overthrown; but
when it was overthrown, a serious question offered
itself to my mind, and I was obliged to give a deci-
sion upon it. The question was—having taken part in
connection with other parties in the overthrow of that
Government, whether or not I could take a part in the
Government which was about to be formed. I do not hesi-
tate to say that if I had thought a Government could have
been formed, either by myself or by other parties, without
a junction between different parties in politics, which Go-
vernment could hope to be strong in the confidence of the
House of Commons, I would rather that the Government
should have been formed of one party only, than that the
Government should be formed of different parties who had
not hitherto worked together. But when I came to consider
the position in which I might be placed, should her Ma-
jesty—which from some intimation I received I had reason
to think might be the case—should her Majesty have sent
for me to ask my advice on that occasion, could I form a
Government which was likely to obtain a permanent ma-
jority in the House of Commons? Could Lord Aberdeen,
with the assistance of Sir R. Peel's friends, have formed
such a Government ? Lord Aberdeen thought that was
impossible. He has frequently declared to me he thought
that was impossible. The Government of Lord Derby had
just been defeated, after every means had been taken—
means, upon the character of which I will not now enter
--but after every means had been taken to secure a majo-
rity, that Government was not able to command a majo-
rity in the House of Commons.. Was I then to contribute
to bring Parliamentary Government into discredit ? (Loud
cheers.) Was it not my duty, by every means in my
power, to enable Lord Aberdeen to form a Government
which would have the confidence of the House of Com-
mons ? (Loud cheers.) Sir, on this subject I did not
act alone. I did not betray, nor desert, nor surrender the
confidence of that great party with which was associated
(Great cheering.) My right hon. friend who has just spoken
has given his testimony to the fact that I did not desert
them ; and I may add, that the man whom I naturally
went to consult on that occasion, was not one who had con.
stantly been my enemy—one in whom I had no political
confidence—the man whom I went to consult was my Lord
Lansdowne—(cheers)—and I found with him a right hon.
friend of mine, as distinguished for his talents, as distin-
guished for his character, as any member of this house or
of his party. I mean Mr. Macaulay. (Cheers.) I think
I betray no confidence when I state what passed on that
°Z'ha.Bierde°enn. I asked Lord Lansdowne, supposing that Lord
has a summons from her Majesty to form a Go
vernment, whether he thought that I could be a member
of the Cabinet with Lord Aberdeen—whether he thought
it was my duty so
and Lord
Late. do. We discussed numerous contingen-
cies,opinion itWas
myntsidowne ended by declaring that in his
lie, to aceept office under
duty which I owed to the pub-
expressed his opinionndersLord Abardeen. Mr. Macaulay
know you are not afraid of
more strongly. He said, " I
4 ntreeeponsibility—(loud cheers)- --
but you never incurred
if you do not le awful responsibility than
you will incur,
to form a Government on the end
your utmost assistance
cooZezit occasion." (Hear.)
vserewherfaii
Sir, I consulted others--I
opinion
that hon.
it
wasfriend
who has just spoken—and they
my duty to form a Government
Whig party with the party of- the remaining unite the
Sir Robert Peel, who Were then
ready
to na friends
of
acs
under Lord Aberdeen. (Hear, hear.) With m:l4 °ffice
Aberdeen, I must say that I have always been in iitanbkord
private friendship. I respected his public character; a4nol
when I had occasion to speak of his conduct in the Foreign_
Sirto hisil.
laCietelliinlistration,
office, in the
respectsadministration of
said that,
though opposed in some _ch the honour or the incould not find any occasion on w.
inte-
rests of this country had ever been sacrificed by Lord Aber-
deen. (Cheers.)
my public testimony to his`c
was
opposed to him. The right hOnn:
duct at a time wSheunchl l*
gentleman chooses to say. that at the time when I spoke of
my noble friend the present Homers ecretary, as not being
1 Aberdeen. Sir I the Minister of Austria, or the Minister of Russia, or the
Minister of Prussia, I alluded to Lon I
• st of a coterie of per-
made no such allusion ; I meant no such allusion ; but
per .
did declare that in spite of the whis
f foreign-
sons in this country, formed chiefly, I believe, o
ere, I thought my noble friend had acted as the Minister
of England, and not as the Minister of any foreign power,
and as such I defended his policy. Sir, I retain that
I
sentiment to this present hour. (Loud cheers.) t
ray noble friend, as Foreign Minister, did uphold, to
_the
very highest point, the interests of this country, and as
I defended him- in 1849, so I would defend him now. (Re-
newed cheers.) But the question was this : if, as I thought,
it Was impossible to form a Ministry composed of the
Whig party—if it was impossible to form a Ministry
composed of those who followed Sir R. Peel--if it was un-
wise, if not impossible, to leave the Government in the
hands of a party which had not the confidence of the House
of Commons, and which, in my opinion, did not deserve to
have that confidence—(cheers)—there remained the ques-
tion whether those men who had acted together on the
greatest question that for some years has divided Parlia-
ment—l allude to the question between protection and
free trade—whether the men who concurred on that ques-
tion might not be able- to concur on other questions, and ,
enter office _together. To many of my former colleagues 1
office was not Proposed ; to some of them office was pro.