The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-14 00:00:00

into the navy, and upon anther this year to inquire in'
the army; and the chief g, od th s does me i.s, tnea I ain
learning my lesson while they think I an sitting i !le.—
(Applause.) Another result of C infinitives the
Investigation to which the ti.oncial get. rmptustation tins
given rise, is the exposure of the reckless wa,te and ex-
travagance in our dockyards; hut it, p is n
to be wondered at that ships should be ord. red by per
sons who do not know what a ship should be, when
every two or three years there is a change in the Lord-
of the Admiralty, one of whom is occasionally turned
out to make room for a fresh one. Take the case of the
present Secretary for the Admiralty, Mr. Ward; he is
a person of great official aptitude, and he has performed
his duties at the Admiralty so well that I should have
liked to have seen him made Secretary of the Admiralty
for life. But now he is appointed Chief Commissioner
of the lonian Islands, and another secretary will come
who will have his lesson to learn, and he will learn it at
your expense. There is no remedy ,or this but to keep
your establishments A 3 low as possible.—(llear, hear,
and applause.) We have raised this question, and what
we have said is nut only telling upon the Government,
bat upon other Governments. There is not a meet•
ing we hold but a report of what I say is trans-
cribed into the Paris papers, and is read ex-
tensively on the Continent.; and if we succeed
in reducing our army, I believe it will be only con-
temporaneously with reductions in other countries; and,
therefore, I look on these peace meetings and these
financial reform meetings eith some complacency, as
being likely to prove a means of diminishing the horrors
of war. Gentlemen, I told you that I would talk to you
in a familiar and conversational way, and I am afraid I
have done so very inefficiently. I have only, in conclu-
sion, to recommend that you will.carry out the valuable
suggestions of your chairman, and qualify yourselves
by votes. lam not afraid of the people ; but I should
deceive you if I told you that we should be able to carry
any extensive reform in the present constitution of Par-
liament. If you want to extend the suffrage, I ask you
to dnc o
thy so
has by qualifyingaedevise you to_,
yourselves for voting in the
set you i follow the example
In the midland coun-
ties which
b y Mr. Taylor
Taylor and others. You cannot lay
cwo.,lr
out 401. or 501. better then by the purchase of
a vote. As a means of reform, I advise any man, it
he has not a vote, and if he has the means, to qualify
himself by purchasing a vote for the county. Especially
should he do this when he does not possess a borough
vote; and if he is a borough voter, he should still be
anxious to gain a county franchise. And if this pro-
cess goes on, it will be the readiest means of carrying en
financial reform, which, sooner or later, will come, and I
hope it will come tranquilly; and that its progress will
not be dammed up until the flood comes, tearing away
its banks, as on the Continent, leaving everything in
confusion and oat of its natural channel. (Mr. Cobden
resumed his seat amidst reiterated plaudits.)
E. BAINES, Esq., proposed the second resolution.
Alderman LUCCOCY seconded it.
Colonel THOMPSON, M.P., came forward to support
the resolution, and was received with enthusiasm and
prolonged cheering. He said—Mr. Chairman and gen-
tleman, I know not what I can better do towards
promoting the objects which have been so ably sub-
mitted to you than to say that I sal sure that you will
receive in a kindly manner any man of my habits
who comes forward to declare that he, with many
others of his ancient comrades, is scarcely of* the
same opinions with those who have already ad-
dressed you.—(Cheers.) Knowing something, or at
all events wishing to know something, if that be
English—(Laughter)—about the subject which is
before you, we are glad of the opportunity of rendering
what we think a useful service to our country, and
of saying that the whole thing which you desire is
within the compass of an able and reasonable Govern-
ment, and that there wants nothing but for you to get
up that steam force which shall compel them to exert
themselves to accomplish it.—(Loud cheers.) But it is
a matter which will require judgment. No human Odra
that I ever heard of conduct themselves, or can be con-
ducted, without the application of experience and com-
mon sense. You have not been invited to call for any
such thing. A period has been pointed out, not so long
ago either, because to some of us it seems only yester-
day, when our establishments were thought to be great
and magnificent, and were allowed by universal consent
to be sufficient for our use and necessity.—(Hear, hear.)
What, in the name of common sense, has happened to
make it different? Show me what has increased in pro-
portion to the demands now made upon it. Is it your
health and happiness?—(Laughter.) I am afraid not.—
(Hear, hear.) If it were, there might be some show of
reason for what we have witnessed since, but it has not
been pressed on any side that I know of that such has
been the case. No, no, it is the propensity which all
men have to spend other people's mon-237 for them which
has led to that extravagance that you complain of.—
(Cheers.) Don't quarrel with us old files who say we
are quite ready to give you the benefit of any knowledge
and experience we possess.—(Hear, hear) We are al-
ways glad of an opportunity
to point out how and where
the evil can best be remedied, and to offer our services
on these points, as we are on any others that may be
proposed to us. You have already made a great advance
on one important point. You have got freedom to exer-
cise your own industry, and to bring back in exchange
for it the products of other countries.—(Hear.) There
is more to get yet—not so much as if you had got nothing,
but there is that which is important still, and you will
have it, depend upon it, because there will be no stop•
ping it.—(Cheers.) There will be opposition, and my
counsel, therefore, is, that you omit no effort—relax not
in any attempt that you can make to push forward to
perfect success the freedom of trade and commerce.—
(Cheers) There are symptoms of an expectation in
certain quarters, I can tell you, that there should be
something like a retrograde movement on that head. I
think they are simpletons who indulge this expectation.
whether they bo lords or commoners.—(Cheers.) Yet I
do see signs of it, and 1 am obliged to acknowledge
that I believe there are men foolish enough to
entertain some such hope.—(Hoar, hear.) Now, lately,
when a largo collection of agricultural members and the
remnant of those who, having enjoyed privileges fLr a
long time, would like to have them again, if they
were
able, assured another sinful interest—the ship-owning
interest, that they would not allow it to suffer, were they
not dreaming, mad as it may be, that a time might come
when they should re-impthe those fetters on our arms
which have so lately been broken off.—(Hear, hear, and
cheers.) You .exert yourselves—keep the Government
moving. Humaq affairs never stand still, and here is
an opportunity to advance in the right direction. Flavin',
got one thing, pitch for another. Call out for financial
reform—you have need enough of it.—(Cheers and
laughter.) There is net one of us but who could
tell where he would be better off by a reduction of
taxation.—(Hear, hear.) Why should we not expend
(hia lveear.) not lost so much of your own Surely there is nobody so
deluded. that amount either for our own use or for the use of our
wives and families which we are now obliged to give
t h n
hopel g el y
s e?o—n
reputation in this county fur common sense, as, if it
fur something
comes to a simple question of paying money, that there
is any man or woman who does nut think we should gain
by a diminutionof the unnecessary taxes which we have
now to pay.—(Cheers.) Follow the course, then, that
has been recommended. Endeavour to increase your
present power on the register. Pay less and vote wore.
—(Cheers.) Take the plan which is offered to you to
increase your power of voting, and trust in Provide nto
for that which will come after. There is a struggling gas
in this country which will have vent some way or
other. Everybody begins to see and believe this. Our
working
classes
are not 10 ignorant as to have grown
up to manhood without seeing that sooner or later
the ark of the constitution must certainly op n its
door to admit them as will as those who are there
already.—(Loud cheers.) There will be no violence—
nu outbreak about it.—(Hear.) It may not come all at
once—it may come by degrees, but so surely as the child
which was once weak grows up to the strength of man,
so surely shall those classes whom we now see in the
possession
of political rights, as well as those at a dis-
tance from them, arrive at the full enjoyment of all that
they can desire.—(Cheers.) And wh3 ? Because it is
so manifestly for everybody's good that it should be so.
Rich men believe in it, and great men confess it. Is not
this confession spreading and extending? Do we not
see in our political proceedings that universal confession,
that man, intelligent and wise, cannot for ever be kept
from the enjoyment of poltital freedom /—(Hear.)
What is the continent struggling for ? For that very
thing, and nothing else.—(Cheers.) Never give up the
opinion. Stick to the belief in what has been leo ably
proposed to you here, that you have a strung sympathy
and fellow-feeling in the attainment of political freedom
on the continent of Europe, because political freedom
brings peace, and harmony and commerce with it.—
(Cheers.) It is not the people of Europe that are want-
ing to go to war with one another.—(Hear.) It is the
despots and the aristocracy, unchecked by popular feel-
ing.—(Cheers.) See what a mighty change has taken
place within these three years in the feelings of the
people of England and France towards one another.
I I was fortunate enough myself to see sonic of those
early symptoms in France, where I happened to be,
and, which I hope will ultimately be productive of
the most beneficial results.—(Hear.) At this very
moment hundreds of our fellow-countrymen from the
metropolis, and various parts of the country, are en-
joying the hospitality of the French nation in the capital
of France.—(hear, hear.) It as not so when we were
boys.—(Laughter.) The drumm, r and the recruiting
sergeant were our only music. We know better now.—
(Cheers.) Our friends in London and elsewhere have
had free admission to the opera—a thing that we
should not have thought of; and all this proves that
men are not influenced by such sanguinary dispositions
towards each other by nature.—(Hear, hear.) No, no,
men were, made for better things; and we are advanced
far enough to show that we may, if we like, check the
progress of those practices which in past times have en-
tailed such a vast amount of misery and suff r.ng in
the world.—(Cheers.) 1 do contess I am Utopian
enough—that is the phrase—to look forward to the
time when men shall learn war no mare.—(flea r,
hear, and cheers.) We have been nearer to the
completion of that prophecy than some thought
of. What have sensible men to do with
IYearning war, much more, at all events, than learning
surgery? We may want surgeons still, bat in the name
of common sense let us have the fewest we can d t with.
—(Laughter.) This is the point which strikes me all
wise and sensible men will choose to mark upon. I hope
that we shall see a c,-ssatiun of those mis rable times
when men, because one called a hat a hat, and another a
'limpet:at, shall think that they were born under a natural
necessity of being each other's enemies.—(Cheers.) You
have within your reach an opportunity of protno'ing
this happy and desirable consummation. You know, and
therefore I need not point out to you, what vast influence
the county of York, and this riding in particular, has
always had on political objects and transactions.—
(Hear, hear.) Why, •if the county of York
was to choose to make a peace, I have my
doubts whether anybody else would dare to go to war.
—(Cheers and laughter.) You are not without cu-ope-