The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-31 00:00:00

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j mllll9ll' mak
(Hefeerhear.)
of insurance, I
it is said there
,Isirable that we
very great evil
..present circum:
public opinion,
to dismantle ot
put by Mr.
time. The qu,
to increase our army and navy. rt is admitted on
all hands that war is opposed to Christianity, and
every man says, Oh, we disapprove ;If war in the
abstract." I could hardly help smiling at our friend
Colonel Thompson, when he said he would nit go the
full length; that he could not give up war eotirely ;
and at another gentleman who would give no pledge
that ho would not vote against any addition. s,:rshey
talked about throwing dust in the eves of John Bull;
but he thought that was a little like it. We find agafti
we have to deal with those who have always been in
favour of free trade in the abstract, anti, there are
many persons who very much disapprove of drunken-
ness in the abstract, and I don't believe ti'Ere is a
thief in the New Bailey but is in favour of honesty
in the abstract—(Laughter)—but in the preseht *We
of public opinion, and under present circumstancesa
am obliged to violate the law in order to provide Or
my family.—(Laughter and applause.) And, Sir, Ir
very much incline to believe that among our military
gentlemen there are many who disapprove of war in
the abstract, and who are in favour of peace ; bat, then,
under peculiar circumstances, it would not do to
depend upon any of these principles. Believe me,
ladies and gentlemen, our best security is in- act:ng
according to what we believe to be right. We have
heard a great deal about Christianity. We' know
that any man who is really a believer in those prin-
ciples has a reliance and a faith that they are the beat
means for attaining the end. We suppose that we
cannot brook insult. But I remember when I was
young I read an anecdote of Lord Chesterfield, which
relates that when he was walking on a footpath there
came a man who knocked him is the. gutter,
saying, " I never give way to puppies! Lord
Chesterfield coolly replied, " Oh! well, I do."
And depend upon it if you wrestle with
a sweep you are sure to be black. Now, nations
are only composed of individuals, and what is right
as regards individuals will be applicable as regards a
nation.--(Hear, hear.) And I know that love by
love is won; and if we do kindness to others we shall
be benefited ourselves; and if we only believed that
the good we do to the community was really a benefit
to us, and that the injury we do to others will ulti-
mately come upon ourselves, we should then believe
that it was our best interest as a nation to endeavour
to cultivate that general opinion that will have an
effect upon Governments ; and if we only have the
people really imbued with the spirit of peace, de-
pend upon it the Governments of the world must
conform to that opinion, and public opinion will
prove stronger than arms.—(.Applause.) I will not
detain you at greater length, knowing who is to fol-
' low me.
The CHAIRMAN then put the toast to the meeting,
and it was enthusiastically responded to.
Mr. GEORGE THOMPSON, M.P., on rising to re-
pond to the toast, was warmly received. Ile said—
Sir, if it were necessary for the last speaker to crave
'he kind indulgence, for a few minutes, of this vast
assemblage, already detained here to I believe an un-
precedented extent, and yet with attention unwearied,
or I honestly believe that those who have departed
have un willingly departed—how much more neces-
sary is it for me, rising at a still later period, to
solicit from you that which under any other cireum-
Aencee I would not ask—your attention for a few
seconds.—(Applause.) I have been moved to-night to
an extent to which I believe I never was previously
moved by the proceedings of any meeting I ever at-
tended.—(Hear, hear.) If I am not greatly mis-
taken, we shall from to-niht date the commence-
ment of a new era in reference to foreign politics in
this country.—(Cheers.) I never was so struck
before as to-night with the marvellous consequences
flowing from the agitation of the free-tradeprinciple. If
it should come to pass that the intelligence of this
country should take upon itself to inquire into the origin
and authors of wars; if it should assume to itself its
undoubted prerogative, since it is to furnish both the
treasure and the blood, to know the grounds of the
quarrel, who are to sustain it in the lists—who are to
he entered—whose hearths are to be made desolate,
and whose pockets are to be emptied ; I say if this
should come to pass, then the other benefits flowing
from trade will sink in comparative insignificance be-
fore the majesty of a people, wresting a pen from the
hand of a foreign secsdary, hit4gto wielded to
plunge the nations into war and delu7he the earth in
blood—and claim for themselves the right of settling,
by reason and the law of kindness, the quarrel hi-
therto determined by the power of the sword.
(Great applause.) A digher destiny and mission
seems to be ,reserved for him who has led us in
a preceding struggle. God grant him life and
health, and wisdom and courage, and men to sup-
port him.—(Applause.) Need I hope for that ?
He will have this nation as one man, deduct-
ing those who live by public plunder, and seek to
inscribe their name upon the page of history with the
point of a sword dipped in the blood of their fellows.
—(Applause.) And yet, Sir, every preceding
speaker, although they have been of one mind upon
this question, has contradicted himself. They have
all been invaders to-night. I charge them with in-
vading my castle ; with taking my fortifications by
storm ; with entering my territory, assigned to me,
guaranteed to me under the hand and seal of the
chairman.—(Hear and cheers.) They have violated
the treaty ; they have come without even a declaration
of war.—(Applause.) They have entered my citadel;
but I do net mean to follow one individual's advice ;
and because they have entered in at one end of the
castle, march ingloriously out at the other. Now,
Sir, we have heard of wretched prophets. Who
knows that I may be among the number ? But I
would venture to fortel that the Free-trade Hall of
Manchester will be more than a match for Apsley
House and the Horse Guards together. One old
gentleman has taken his pen in hand to write a
letter. There is another old gentleman, whose phy-
siognomy you may see in every shop window where
periodicals are sold, that always holds his pen with a
sage looking dog by his side, and, my word for it,
Punch and Cobden will beat the Duke of Wellington
and Lord Ellesmere to boot.—(Applause.) Sir, I
heard something in London the other day, and that
may account for this outcry of an invasion. I heard
that there had been within a very short time 20,000
applications at the Horse Guards, which they had not
been able to supply with commissions. See you any-
thing in that? Can you not put that and that toge-
ther?—(Laughter.) Is it not just passible that there
may be 20,000 human beingswho require to eat, and
require to be clothed, and seek for a little pocket
money besides, for whom their parents and
guardians
desire such situations as will enable them to strut in
brilliant scarlet, in gilded epaulettes, and live, free
from charge to them, upon the pockets of the English
people .
9—(Hear, and applause.) I think it is just pos-
sible it may be so, but of this I feel certain, arguing,
not only from the temper of this meeting, and three
others of a similar character, though less in number,
that I have recently attended, that there is to be made
an appeal to the people of this empire, and their uni-
versal voice shall contradict every one of those lead-
ing articles to which reference has been made to-
night. Is it now that we are to war with others;
now that we are to revive extinguished animosities ;
now that we are to adopt again the irrational phrases
and the dehumanising epithets of fifty years ago, when
France herself is setting an example which we may
do well to follow ? What were the toasts given at
those sixty reform banquets which have lately taken
place in France ? This has been given at one of
them, at all events,—" Fraternity, liberty, and equa-
lity."—(Great applause.) Let us echo from these
shores the shouts which have been raised—and, I am
sorry to say, stifled, as far as Paris is concerned, for
the banquet did not take place there ; let us send back
the echo, " Fraternity, liberty, and equality."
(Cheers.) Sir, this is a missionary town, proverbial for
the munificence of its offerings at the shrine of Christian
missions; though, unhappily ,while we are putting mites
into the sanctuary of the Lord, we are putting ingots
into the altar of Moloch. But what, Sir, if some
converts that have been made to Christianity by our
various mission aries—and where have they not made
converts in all those lands referred to by my excel-
lent friend who preceded me, and in every land popu-
lated by the human race ? I say, what if a ship-load
of these converts were to come to these shores when
the Duke of Wellington had accomplished his wish,
and we—before any preparations—what, if they
should see our channel filled with war-steamers—..
what, if they should see at their first landing the in-
dications of war, and ask what those things meant,
and be told that, without a declaration of war, with-
out a quarrel, without a symptom of an unfriendly
kind on the other side of the channel—what though
we had sent our missionaries to the islands and con-
tinents from which they came, to teach them to put
their trust in an overruling Providence, and in the
omnipotence of their lelaker, without whose permission
not a hair of their heads should perish—that we, prac-
tical Atheists as we should be, without one indication
of a hostile intention on the part of our neighbours,
or one upward look to that Being in whose arm is
omnipotence, were resorting to all these infernal
agencies to ward off an evil not to be perceived even
in the remotest distance !—(Applause.) But, though
the prospect is tempting, I will suppress what I might
otherwise have said.—(Cries of "Go on, go on.")
Gentlemen, the toast that I have to propose couples
peace and free trade with the cause of popular rights.
Yes, popular rights—(Hear, hear, and great ap-
;lens, ;)—and, on the subject of popular rights,
a vol- to the working classes. Brethren, before you
tigut, know what you are going to fight fur. I charge
the working classes from this platform, if there shall

Rio,*

eking pre orations to tyro pettoe...;
We have paid ave high prmainma
think, in favour of peace. Again, it
is/no man but whet will admit it h
should reman at peace; that war is a
; but then will any man say that under
n,tabees, and 'the pm ent Etzte of
I, it is safe to du 'and our army, and
)ur fortications. That, as has been
Cobden, is not the question at thin
iestion is, whether we are prepared