The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-17 00:00:00

EXTRA-PARLUMENTARY UTTERANCES.

At a banquet given by the Mayo: of Newcastle-under-
Lytle, Sir E. M. Buller, M. 15., was one of the guests, and,
in responding to the toast of the House of Commons, said
he believed all present at that festal board, and eVery
sensible-man in the country, would endorse and approve
the policy of the English G overinnent in maintaining a
strict neutrality. France had struck the first blow in
this war, and that was so much against her. lre glanced
:it the origin of the war—the candidature for the Spanish
throne, the jealousy it evoked in France, and the decla-
ration by France that they would not permit German
unity. France did wrong to put herself into
that position, a policy which was likely to prove
fatal to the interests of the surrounding Governments.
He did not wonder that Prussia should resist France in
such a matter. There were those who held that only in
the unity of Germany would security be found. The
intervention by England in the first instance failed, • and
our country could not take sides with France, neither
could they worthily and properly take the side of Prussia.
England had been Mauled for nut taking one side or the
other, and they had been accused of being influenced
by the old shopkeeping principle—of thinking about
nothing but money. He trusted the nation would
not be driven from its neutrality by such talk as that.
For himself he was all for the shop; and he thought it
would be a blessed day for France if she would throw off
her ambition and take upon herself the cultivation of
those gentler avocations by which men lived and pros-
pered. It was all very well to talk of glory and military
honour, but what had military honour done for France ?
She had had some halos of glory, and had gained a little
territory, it was true ; but there had been a great sacri-
fice of blood for it all. In England, he thought, they
might be thankful for being a nation of. shopkeepers,
What had shopkeeping done for England ? Why, it had
raised a large colony in America, and a new world in
Australia, and at home had promoted peace, happiness,
and prosperity. It was sad now to look upon France, and
see her churches, hospitals, libraries, and colleges in dan-
ger of ruin. A whisper might be made to Prussia that it
it would not be well to press this war too close in the ruin
and humiliation of France, but that they would shew jus-
tice and mercy. Germany was strong enough, he thought,
and need not insist upon unreasonable or hard terms of
peace. He trusted that the result of this war would be
that France would give up her dreams of universal domi-
nion, and be sensible of the good iafluences of moderation
and justice.
Mr. Somerset Beaumont, M.P., in. addressing his con-
stituents at Wakefield said he considered the Elementary
Education Act as a fair attempt towards bringineelemen-
tary education to the door of every child between five and
thirteen. From what he was told of the school accommo-
dation of Wakefield, it was doubtful whether they would
have to elect a school board; but if such election had to
take place, he loped that they would put aside all politi-
cal considerations, and only think of choosing the best
men, is-respective of party, as members of the school-
board. He wished the Privy Council had devised
some other method of appointing the members of the
school-boards, because the public were growing tired
of elections, and in some cases those elections were con-
ducted in such a disgraceful way as to keep the best men
away from candidature. Another important measure
which had been passed during the last session was the
Irish Land Act, his only criticism on which would be
that the Government seemed rather to shrink from fully
recognising the principles of their measure, and to
be 'unwilling to apply it to England. He (Mr.
Beaumont), however, held that the measure was
in accordance with the soundest principles of
political economy, and he said, as he had
said before, that he should not be satisfied till a good
Land Act was passed for England. He very much re-
gretted that the Ballot Bill had not been carried, but he
had little doubt but that it would be passed next session,
and would be applied to municipal as well as to parlia-
mentary elections. After expressing his gratification
that Mr. Gladstone had admitted in the House of Com-
mons the desirability of assimilating the county and
borough franchises, Mr. Beaumont proceeded to say that
he very much regretted that another excellent measure,
the University Tests Bill, had not become law during the
last session. The bill, as they were aware, had been re-
.

jetted by the House of Lords, and the antagonism which
that House had of late displayed to the House of Com-
mons was, he could not help thinking, becoming a serious
question. He had once or twice asked himself, seeing
that within the past forty years there had been two
Reform Acts for the House of Commons, whether it
would not be well to have a very little Reform Bill for
the House of Lords. The great characteristic of English
institutions was that it was not necessary to lay the
axe to the root of the tree, and that it was possible to
reform without destroying them. As reasonable reforms
which might be applied to the constitution of the House of
Peers, Mr. Beaumont suggested that there might be a large
infusion of life peerage; that the bishops might be excused
from attendance in the House of Lords, and that peers
might be enabled to enter the House of Commons. He
alluded to the proposal that he himself had brought for-
ward in the House of Commons for relieving the spiritual
peers from attendance in Parliament—a motion for
which upwards 100 members voted, and which was

only beaten by 56. Mr. Gladstone,'s speech in reply to
the motion was considered by many to be what the French
would call reculer pour mieux sauter—stepping back for a
better jump. The hon. gentleman next turned to the sub-
ject. of the Franco-Prussian war. They were all, he
thought, pretty well agreed as to who was responsible for
this war. It was not France—it was the Emperor who
caused the outbreak of the war. The Empire—by whichhe
meant not only the Emperor, but the infamous system
that had existed about him—was the unprovoked aggressor.
The whole of the French press that was not connected with
the Government protested against the war ; the whrle
Republican party—a party of honourable and upright
men—were against it. This was proved by the reports as
to the feeling of the population by the French Prefects,
recently published. The Emperor was not, therefore,
justified in saying that the French people had
forced him into the war. As to the part which
England had taken in the unsuccessful negotiations
which preceded the war, he regretted that neither our
Premier nor our Foreign Minister had in his place in
Parliament fixed the responsibility of the failure of those

negotiations on the right party. The question of the
maintenance of the balance of power in Europe, which
France professed to go to war to defend, was one in which
England had no real concern. The cause of Germany,
in his view, was a righteous one. lie had always wished
her success, and he rejoiced that she had had it. If

the Government really Understood the policy which
would promote the well-being of the country,
they would cultivate friendly relations with Germany,
for whatever Germany might do in Europe she could do
nothing contrary to the interests of Great Britain. The
result of the war would certainly be to bring about great
changes in Europe, and in all likelihood we should see a
German nation of sixty er seventy millions, and a terri-
tory extending from Hamburg to the Danube ; because
Austria, after the events that had happened, would be
unable to. prevent the union of her German subjects with
the rest of the German people. At the close of the address
a vote of confidence in Mr. Beaumont was adopted by
acclamation.

The Lord Bishop of Down consecrated a new
church at Kilmore on Friday.
FOUNDERING OF THE UNITED STATES STEAMED
GALATEA. —By the arrival at Liverpool of the Inman.
Company's steamer City of Washington, we have intelli-
gence of the foundering of the United States steamer
Galatea, and the arrival at New York of a portion of the
survivors. On the 13th ult. she sprung a leak, and at four
o'clock on the afternoon of the same day the first and
second cutters were launched, and provisions placed in
them, but there was no freth water, in consequence of the
sea having risen in the tanks. At ten minutes past five
the steamer sank, stern foremost with all sails set. The
two boats then steered for Abaco, in the Bahamas, but
the night being dark, they became separated, and nothing
was seen of the second cutter's lights after midnight. At
nine o'clock the next night the first cutter was picked up
by the schooner Tampico, and eventually landed at Key
West. It is presumed that the second boat has succeeded
in reaching Abaco, but up to the latest advices nothing
had been heard of her or her crew. The Galatea was
built in 1861, for the United States navy, and participated
in the blockade of the Southern ports. She was a screw
steamer and was 1200 tons burden.

THE POOR-LAW MEDICAL SERVICE.—A meeting
of representatives of the British Medical Association and
Poor-law Medical Officers' Association, the two largest
medical officers in the kingdom, was held in the board-
room of the Royal Medical College,Soho-square, for the
purpose of drawing up representations to Mr. Goschen,
as president of the Poor-law Board, regarding required
changes in the present system of the poor-law medical
sernice, for ensuring a proper registration of disease, and
other public advantages. From a statement made by
Dr. Rogers, it was shewn that the medical pro-
fession, speaking through its representatives, had
desired to obtain a system of disease registra-
tion as a means to direct sanitary and benevolent
exertions,
,as well as to give timely warning of
the rise and progress of various epidemics, so that
preventive measures might be early adopted. The medi-
cal societies at their late meetings had nominated these
committees, and after some discussion it was agreed to
ask Mr. Goschen to receive a deputation to discuss with
him not only the adoption of a plan for the registration
of disease, but to consider other points of an important
bearing upon the whole question of poor-law medical
relief.

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