The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-17 00:00:00

MR. FORSTER' ON THE WAS.
(CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAM.)
Last evening the Right Hon. W. B. Forster addressed
his constituents-in St. George's Hall, which was crowded
by an audit nce of about four thousand persons.
Alderman Brown occupied the chair, and on
the platform was a large number of LiberalS
of the town and district. A large section of the
meeting was strongly opposed to Mr. Forster's policy in
the adjustment of the question on national education, and
this feeling was repeatedly manifested in the course of
the proceedings.
Mr. Forster, who was received with loud cheering, said
he did not know that, over since he had been their mem-
ber, had he been so long without addressing them ; but
although a Cabinet Minister, and therefore un-
able to speak with perfect freedom, ,he never
had intended to omit his annual address.
It was exactly a year since his last address, and the last
half of it had witnessed scenes which defied description,
for it was impossible to find words to describe them.
Tuesday was exactly six months since the declaration of
war by France against Prussia. What a change those six
months had witnessed ! The nation was looking with
feelings of sorrow on the wild and thoughtless exhultation
with which Paris received that declaration, and now we
were waiting in expectation of soon witnessing the entry
within her gates of those Germans she hoped to conquer
the first half of the year. The parliamentary half
had been by no means unimportant, but he felt it to be
his first duty to speak on this great question of the war,
on which however he could only speak with a heavy re-
sponsibility attaching to every word he spoke ; indeed,
some responsibility attached to the cpinion of every
English citizen. On this matter he wished that his re-
sponsibility was more generally recognised, and that some
of those who were writing on the question would reflect,
but they might be sowing the seeds of hate between our-
. selves and continental nations. He had never felt that it
was the duty of Englishmen to 'tell the French that
they ought to cease resistance, but at the same
time he held that Englishmen ought to be most careful
that they did not mislead the French as to the attitude of
England, and lead them to prolong the contest after it
became hopeless. These who were partizans could not be
peacemakers, and, therefore, whatever his opinion might
be as to the beginning of the war, or as to its present
position, it must not be expected that he should express
it ; that, however, did not preclude the expression of
sympathy, and who could have helped sympathising with
the Germans in resisting the invasion at the onset, and
with the French for resisting invasion new. (Cheers.)
The hon. member expressed his confidence that when Par-
liament met Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville would
be able to prove that they had done their best to preserve
peace. They had offered advice to Prussia to withdraw
the original cause of the war, and Prussia followed the
advice ; advice to France after that cause of war was
withdrawn, not to declare war, and !that advice he was
sorry to say France did not follow. It might be alleged
that if the Government had expressed strong opinion as to
the horrors of the war and the evils it would bring on
Europe, they might have stayed it. He did not
believe that Count Moltke's strategy and Count
Bismarck's plans would have been changed by
such means, but that was no reason why those means
should not have been resorted to. If it could have been
believed that any good results would follow if our Go-
vernment were to attempt to lay down terms on which
peace should be made, the answer of Prussia,and probably
of France, would be, that it was Rot for those who made
war to make peace, and that it was for neutral Powers
to step in and say what should be the conditions of that
peace. After again urging the necessity of refraining
from any partisanship, if England was to have any real
chance of bringing about peace, Mr. Forster
said he was conscious that the position which
ho urged the nation should take up was not
an easy one, but deviation from it would amount
to throwing away any chance of becoming peacemaker
by becoming partisan. He was aware that there were
some who would regard all moral force as useless, and who
were prepared to go further and declare that moral force
was worthless unless followed by physical force, that
they would follow up words by blows, and make England's
influence felt in this contest. He was not himself of this
opinion, and he would tell the reason why. There had been
some meetings held and articles written in support of
this view of armed interference. He did not
want to exaggerate either these meetings and
these writings, and he rejoiced that Parliament would
soon meet, because in that assembly, largely elected by
household suffrage, more meetings would soon be reduced
to their true proportions as representative of the national
feeling. He believed that the meetings and the articles
were largely inspired, in the first place, by sympathy
with the suffering patriots of France, but behind that he
feared there WAS another feeling less respectable than
sympathy, and that was that the nation was hearing so
much about war, and getting so excited, that it was
beginning to be infected with the war spirit. (" No.")
A gentleman said " No, no," but he must be blind to the
signs of the times if he did not recognise the fact that the
war spirit was in truth a most contagious disease. He did
not wish to be misunderstood, he was not a member of
the Peace Society, though he was born a member of one,
and lie recognised the fact that occasion arose when war,
horrible as it was, became a duty, but when not a duty
war was murder, whether carried on out of
the greed of territory, or for the, sake
of glory. What right had he, then to
declare war against either France or Prussia. He did not
say that in no ease ought one country to come to the help
of another, but he did say that the cage in which it would
be the duty of England to join either France or Germany
had not yet occurred. Some urged that England ought at
the beginning to have threatened France to sign against
her if she declared war, and that that would have
stopped the war ; but threats were dangerous
things, and he believed that in this case, in-
stead of stopping the war, they would have extended it ;
amid if the Government had a duty towards other
countries, they had also a duty to the people of
England, the duty not merely of refraining from
spending their money, but also of refraining
from sending their sons to slaughter in p, quarrel which
was not of their making. He was for peace at any price
short of the non-performance of duty. The
duties which
„England had to perform were the de-
, fenee of her own shores and her dependencies ;
and he therefore sympathised with the attitude
of Lord Granville in his attitude on the Black Sea
Question and the fulfilment of obligations. Therefore he
held that the Government was right in accepting an obli-
gation in regard to the neutrality of Belgium,
and declaring its readiness to fulfil that
obligation ; but he wauld be very careful
about incurring such obligations in future. Mr, Forster
referred to some passages in a recent speech of Sir Charles
Dilico's, and repudiated a notion which seemed to be con-
veyed in them, that England might go to war and not
exert herself further than by blockading a few ports.
If England did go to war she would have to strain every
nerve, and prepare both to be heavily struck and to strike
heavily in reply. Sir Charles Dilke was not
right kin the belief he expressed of the rumour
that it was through an underhand influence
on the part of the Queen that had prevented
the recognition of the French Republic by England. There
was no truth in the rumour, and the course of the Queen
had been perfectly constitutional and like that
of an English lady. The simple fact of the
matter was that it was the " custom of the
English Government to present credentials to the
chief person of any Government, and if it was a
monarchy, to the king; if a republic,to the president ; but
at present there was no ;ecognised president of the
French Republic. As soon as there was, the
ordinary courses would be taken. Meanwhile,
the friendly relations existing with the French
Government and Lord Lyons had opened com-
munications with it immediately after its formation.
Mr. Forster denied that the action of Lord Palmerston at
the time of the coup d'etat afforded a precedent
for the action of her Majesty's Government at present,
and closed his reference to foreign affairs
by expressing his hope that ere long we should see an end
of any estrangement between England and the United
States, From what he knew of the character
and past life of General Schenck, the new
American Minister, there was good ground
to suppose that by the long-standing dispute between Ame-
rica and England -it was continually obliterated
from taking all part in foreign affairs, and was
disregarded by all neutral Powers ; but the truth was
that foreigners estimated the influence of England
by her power and her spirit, and not by the
writings of dissatisfied politicians and discontented
officers. Our navy was, he believed, stronger than ever it
had been before ; and our army had, he contended,
no need to be increased to the size of those
possessed by countries which were liable to have
their . frontiers overrun by • hundreds of thousands
of soldiers. . nay reform, nevertheless, was necessary,
and lie believed that a measure of that kind would be a
principal measure of next session. Mr. Forster
contended that Mr. Cardwell had been most
unfairly dealt with, . and prejudice unde-
Servedly raised against him. He was in
truth a man of great moral courage, and, moreover, an
unassuming man. Having referred to the measures to be
introduced in the coming session—the Ballot,the Abolition
of University Tests, the Licensing Bill, and the Trades
Union Bill—the right hon. gentleman concluded by
defending the Education Bill from the objections raised
against it.

ROYAL NAVAL BENEVOLENT
INSTITUTION.

The general annual and quarterly meetings of this
institution took place yesterday at Willis's rooms, Admiral
Sir Edward Belcher in the chair. The annual report pre-
sented, which was a marked contrast in a financial point
of view with that of the preceding year, was adopted.
Various committee reports having been brought up and
read; it was recommended to the court with a view of
meeting questions that might hereafter arise on
the subject of commutation under the recent
Admiralty retirement scheme for officers of the
Royal Navy with reference to its bearing upon
membership, that a resolution be passed at this meeting to
the effect that commutation by an officer of his retired or
half-pay, in accordance with the provisions of Her
Majesty's Order in Council of February 22, 1870, would
in no way affect the pivileges conferred upon him as
a member of this corporation. The recommendation of
the committee was adopted.

THE ASSOCIATED CHAMBERS OF COM-
MERCE AND THE INCOME TAX, &c.
A meeting of the Hull Chamber of Commerce was held
on Friday, R. Glover, Esq., president, in the chair, to
decide on the subject to be introduced at the annual
general meeting the Associated Chambers of Commerce
next month. The subject originally brought forward
some years ago by this Chamber, viz., " Tribunals of
Commerce," has at last assumed the form of a Bill to be
brought before the next Session Parliament,
there to undergo the ordeal of professional
amendment, and afterwards, in the absence of
opposition to become the law of the land. The ques-
tions of international general average, of abrogating the
present vexatious regulations for obtaining a return for
spoiled stamps, were decided to be again introduced. On
the subject of the abolition of the income tax, schedule D,
on the motion of J. L. Seaton, Esq., vies-president, the
following resolution was unanimously adopted :—" That
the tax on trades and professions, being impolitic in
principle, incapable of realisation, even approxi-
mately, with equity, and being most vexatious
and offensive in its operations, is a tax which
' should only be resorted to in cases of great
emergency, and ought now to be repealed, and the Asso-
ciated Chambers having arrived at the above conclusion
as the result of their experience and investigation, de-
termine to represent their views by deputation to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer."