The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-05 00:00:00

and parties, instead of devoting his time and his
energies to the service of his country, and to the
promotion of the welfare of the entire community.
—(Cheers.) The result of his late signal defeat had
been, he thought, an injury to political morals; for
if men who faithfully adhered to their principles, who
had maintained their independence, who had been con-
sistent in their conduct, and faithful to their service,
during a lengthened period of 15 years, were to have
no claim upon a constituency, the result, said, would
be to drive public men into party associations, in-
stead of maintaining their independence, which
could not but prove injurious to political morals—
(Hear)—and subversive of political honesty.—(Hear,
hear.) His defeat might, however, be productive of
good, for it had roused the public spirit, and without
vanity he might say that since his defeat he had re-
ceived more flattering testimonials to his Parlia-
mentary conduct than he had ever received in his
life • and that from John o' Groat's house to the
Land's-end in Cornwall there was hardly a news-
paper but had expressed, first its astonishment at that
defeat, and next its regret that it should have hap-
pened ; and said that his career in Parliament, in-
stead of being entirely useless, as had been alleged
by his opponents, had not been without its usefulness
and reflected honour on him.—(Cheers.) But it had
been said at the late election that he (Mr. Roebuck)
had no claims upon the constituency of Bath; and
this, too, was said by the Dissenters. It was, to say
the least of it, an ungracious speech, coming from a
body for whom and whose rights and liberties he had
all along fought, though he did not belong to them.
He (Mr. Roebuck) was not a Dissenter, but belonged
to and was an attached member of the Church of
England. He, therefore, laboured under no disabili-
ties—he wanted no religious privileges that were not
fully accorded him—he belonged to the dominant
party, and might have kept his foot upon the neck of
the Dissenters, but that he had said he was for equal
liberty, and for an equality of rights without any
religious distinctions—(Hear)—and had therefore
advocated the removal of the disabilities of the Jew
and the Roman Catholic, as well as the Dis-
senter.--(Cheers.)
A GENTLEMAN here interrupted the speaker for a
moment, and said, that the architect had assured him
that the floor of the banqueting-hall would be per-
fectly safe, notwithstanding the immense number of
persons now upon it, if they would only abstain from
stamping with their feet.
Mr. ROEBUCK resumed—His Gallant Friend, Ad-
miral Gordon, must be well aware that he had never
entered that room that the cry of " Danger" was not
raised, and he knew the inuendo of it quite well. He
recollected in the year 1832, when the people were
not permitted to enter that hall, that he was present
when.the tables were spread with all the luxuries of
lit'e.
.
The, declaration he then made wrung like a
death knell in the ears of some who heard it. He
then said, "It is the people's hall, and the people
shall have it before I have done."—(Cheers.) lie
had no doubt that the persons in whose ears that
knell then sounded did not believe that the change
would be a beneficial one ; but it was adopted by
the Legislature, and they (the old corporation) had
to walk out of the left door with very little cere-
mony. But who were they who, under the old
law, were excluded from those walls ?—the Dis-
senters, the Dissenters by name. The Dissenters
dared not enter it. But by the exertions of such men
as himself, and by his own exertions, by the
continued pressure of their pens, their tongues,
and their influence, the champions of freedom had en-
franchised the Dissenters, had made them equal under
the municipal law, had introduced them at that door ;
and was it not a most ungracious return to make, for
them to be the first to assert, and the most vigorous
in carrying out that assertion, that the man who had
been instrumental in making the change was un-
worthy of support ?—(Hear, hear.) It struck him
that the true spirit of forbearance and toleration was
not understood by the persons connected with the
Dissenting bodies of this country. Those who had
made the question of the Maynooth grant, and that of
secular education, a pretext for ousting him from the
representation of Bath, could not have a just concep-
tion of what true tolerance was.—(Cheers.) He was
no longer Member for Bath, and was responsible for his
sentiments only to himself and to his country ; but lie
asserted that the Dissenting body of that neighbour-
hood had yet to learn a lesson of toleration and for-
bearance. If they did not learn it, and practise it
too, the great body of the Church of England would
still be able to keep them in a state of thraldom ; for
unless they asserted and adhered to the principles of
civil and religious liberty, and appealed to the really.
Liberal members of the Church party for as-
sistance, they could not hope to work out their
regeneration.—(Cheers.) So surely as they helped
to point the shaft of scandal and misrepresenta-
tion—so surely as they tried to import the bitter..
ness of religious hatred into the political strug-
gle—so sure would be the retribution which would
follow, and from which the Dissenters themselves
would be the first to suffer.—(Cheers.) And he
must add, that unless the suffrage was greatly ex-
tended, the Dissenting body of this country was not
worthy to possess it. If they would persist in in•
stilling religious bitterness and hate into politics, he
for one would not give them the power of sharpening
the shaft, and until they showed themselves more
worthy of the great boon of freedom they must not
expect his assistance in obtaining it. He wished to
live in fellowship with all his countrymen; he had
worked for Jew as well as Dissenter—for Roman
Catholic as well as Churchman, and for all his coun •
trymen he had sought the blessing of perfect freedom,
and he did intreat them to be more forbearing one
towards another —not to be so ready to attack and
vilify their neighbours—nor to be so arrogant as to
assume the powers of the Deity, and pronounce
damnation on any one.—(Cheers.) He expressed it
as his deliberate opinion, and he told the religious
community that they must not continue the course
they had been too long addicted to take—that of de-
crying those who differed from them in re-
ligious persuasion; and that, above all, they must
use forbearance and kindness towards every child
of the human family. Their own case was
based upon the right of private judgment,
and the moment they assailed that great privilege
in the case of one human being, they began to
kick down the fabric of religious liberty.—(Hear,
hear.) Mr. Roebuck then proceeded to offer sense
observations upon the present portentous state of the
times. The present state of this country was a most
momentous one. England was threatened in a man-
ner which he had never •before known during his
political career. There was a greater amount of un-
employed labour than had ever been experienced
before. Ireland was threatened with another year of
famine ; Europe, from one end to the other, was like
a hot volcano, and war was only avoided with the
greatest possible difficulty. The greatest and most
princely houses were tottering to their very founda-
tions; ruin and devastation were spreading through.
out the mercantile community, and, thence, through-
out every other portion of the land. Now, he would
venture to say, that if some of the advice which he
gave last year, and some of the prophesies which,
Cassandra-like, he uttered, had been attended to,—
some, he might say much of this pressure, difficulty,
and distress, would have been avoided. He was one,
and almost the only one, who stood up against the
lavish and almost useless expenditure for Ireland.—
(Hear.) If the millions which had been sent abroad
for corn which had been wasted and destroyed in Ire-
land had been retained, the great pressure on England
would have been avoided. He had warned the House
of Commons—and in private he did not meet a single
man who did not admit that he was right, although in
public there was not one but who said that he was
wrong—he warned them that in sending away their
millions to purchase corn which was wasted, they
were draining the life's blood of England's commerce.
—(Hear.) It was not often that he and the Times
newspaper agreed together, but he did say that if
Parliament had listened to the Times or to himself
much suffering would have been spared. They might
depend on it that of the greet battle of free trade they
had only yet won one heat—they would have that
struggle to contest over again. They heard it from
the Tory party everywhere that all the mischief was
owing to free trade. So surely as the session of Par-
liament came, so surely would they have to battle for
that great principle. Turn to the Morning Herald,
he did not care of what day, and they would see
that all the evils were ascribed to free trade—it
had done all.—(Hear, hear.) He was a farmer now,
and mixed with farmers, and he did not go to an
agricultural meeting but he heard " See what Cob-
den has brought us to," and the landlords would
chuckle and say, "Yes, he has brought the country
to a pretty pass. 'What can Peel say to this ? what
will he say of his free• trade champion now ?" That
all was Cobden's fault was already said, and what was
worse a great many believed it. Depend upon it the
great battle must be fought over again ; he was vain
enough to think that he might have been of use in the
fight.—(Hear.) But it was not to be; he could not
be in the melee now, but he must only stand by and
look on. Let no man think that he treated the matter
lightly. He believed that they were approaching a
great crisis in the history of their country—a crisis
in which not only free trade, but the great principle
of freedom of thought, would be brought into issue,
and unless they stood true to their principles, neither
turning to the night nor to the left, the enemies of
freedom, the friends of monopoly, would be too power-
ful. Mr. Roebuck then observed upon the fact of ilr.
Cobden, who had been filed abroad, and who was one
of the first men in the House, not having been called
to her Majesty's councils, and ascribed it to his not
being distinguished in high places but merely a manu-
facturer and the son of an Essex farmer. It would
behove every man to be prepared to take his post at the
proper time. He should be prepared
rit hoperepoaredto t
takoe his. He
did not expect, indeed he did
be again
called upon to take his place in Parliament. He hoped
that he might have a rest from political toil for some
years to come.—(Hear.) lio would never ally burn-