The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-04 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS.

Newton's London. Journal and the Mechanics'
Magazine are both addressed to those practically
engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pur-
suits. The former chiefly consists of a record of
recent patents and inventions applied to scientific
purposes ; the latter has some articles of a different
character, as in the present number it has a paper
on the recent astronomical dispute about "The
Moon's Motion," and another on the principles
of Heat and Light.—Charles Knight continues
his useful publications. The English Cyclopa3dia,
of which the Biographical part is now issuing, is
one of the most comprehensive and valuable works
of its kind which has appeared.—The History of
England, though, of course, a work of less preten-
sions, is likely to be a useful and popular produc-
tion.—The Assurance Magazine is, as its name
indicates, devoted to subjects connected with Life
Assurance. The Council of the Institute of
Actuaries give publicity, through its pages, to some
of the, papers presented to the Institute, though
they do not hold themselves responsible for the
opinions of the writers. To all connected with
such institutions it presents some attractive fea-
tures.—Le Pellet has its usual number of plates,
and its usual amount of fashionable information.

LORD PAIVMURE.

At a dinner given to the noble lord by his tenantry,
at Castle Edzell, on Thursday last, his lordship spoke as
follows :
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,—lt is long since the
walls of this ancient castle resounded with such cheers as
these, denoting the affection of the tenantry for a landlord
who cannot boast that he has yet done much to acquire
these affections. I look upon them yet rather as heredi-
tary than as actually earned, but I look forward to the
time when I may b 3 able sincerely and fairly to earn thorn.
(Cheers.) It is extremely gratifying, my friends, for me
to receive from you this testimony of your attachment,
which is more congenial to my heart—and I say it without
hesitation—than any of the public honours which have
fallen. upon me during a now pretty long life. (Cheers.;
Honours fade away, popularity is proverbially evanescent,
but the kindly affection of our neighbours lives with us as
long as we live, and, I believe, in many instances where it
is well merited, long survives us. (" Hear, hear," and
cheers.) It has not been my good fortune to be thrown
among the tenantry of this estate until more than fifty
summers and winters had passed over my bead. Circum- ,
stances to which it is unnecessary to allude have made my
life a somewhat eventful one; and that which I deplore
perhaps more than any other feature in it is that so much
of it had passed away before I was enabled to cultivate
the kindness or even to study the interests of those who
are now under my charge as a landlord. (Cheers. Ever
since I had the good fortune to succeed to the vast posses-
sions of my ancestors, calls of public duty have not per-
mitted me, I may say, to take up my residence among
you. These calls, I trust, are only temporary:, and I most
cordially join in the wish of your chairman that the time
may not be far distant when I shall be enabled to take up
my home in the home of my forefathers, and to cultivate
the acquaintance of those to whose interests it is my duty
to look. After the passing of the Reform Bill, when'you
were enfranchised, and when I was enfranchised myself
for the first time, circumstances threw me into the melee
of politics, and in 1835, under the auspices of a man whom
I always look up to with the greatest respect and &fraction
—I mean Lord John Russell--(cheers)—a man who has
elevated the liberties of his country to a higher point than
any man living—l entered public life first as his Under
Secretary of State. Under such a master, gentlemen, it
was my good fortune to learn nothing but lessons of
constitutional liberty, and to the lessons then learnt,
and the friendship then formed with that noble lord,
I trace my subsequent success in political life. (Cheers.)
Gentlemen, from ono step of politics to another I have
gone, filling various offices ; and I thought that upon the
retirement of Lord John Russell's Ministry my political
career was drawn to a close—l mean my public career in
politics, because I hold that. every man in my position
ought never to lose sight of the politics of his country,
although ho may not be officially connected with those who
administer them. But when my noble friend Lord Pal-
merston took office I was invited to accept the office of
Secretary of State for War. Lord Palmerston stated it to
me as his opinion that my experience would be of benefit
to him in his Government, and under these circumstances
I did not hesitate to accept the office tendered to me. Up
to the present moment I have enjoyed not only the full
confidence of my noble friend at the head of the Govern-
ment, but such able assistance from him as has enabled me
to conduct the affairs of that office with satisfaction to my
own conscience. I believe if the Duke of Newcastle had
remained in office—if that clamour—for I must call it
clamour, which drove him from the reins of the office
in which I succeeded him—had not occurred, he would
have succeeded as well as I have done in bringing the
army round from the state into which it had unfortunately
fallen to the state of "discipline and of improvement
in every way in which it left the shores of the Crimea.
(Cheers.) But there were some steps which were taken
by me which I think did 4 groat deal, not to bring
the army especially from its low estate, bat to prevent
the consequence of that low estate upon the return of the
ensuing summer; and I think that no greater benefit has
accrued to the army than resulted from the labours of the
sanitary commissioners, consisting of Dr. 'Sutherland and
others, who were sent out by me to the shores of the Cri-
mea, who by their skill and foreknowledge removed all
offensive matter from the camp, and prevented that which
every one was prophesying with horror—namely, the rage
of contagion and disease when the hot weather set in.
From the exertions of these gentlemen, and from the man-
ner in which the commanding officers of the army, from
the highest to the lowest, seconded their efforts, no con-
tagion broke out in the ranks of our gallant forces; and
from the time that spring burst upon that island, nothing
but health pervaded the army, and they loft the Carnea and
returned to England in a state of health unknown oven at
home. (Cheers.) I will not detain you long with re-
ference to myself, or the affairs immediately committed to
my charge. I would only say, with regard to the army,
that it has been my study' to improve the condition of the
soldier from the first moment that I had his interests com-
mitted to my charge.. (Cheers.) I have endeavoured to
elevate him from the position in which some 20 or 30 years
ago he was found: He was then to be found either in
the parade ground or in the canteen, with no pursuits to
elevate his mind or expand his intellect. I have en-
endeavoured to rhiso him from such a debased situation,
and to give him a thirst for kutmelteige, and an -opportu-
eity of cultivating those talents sshich he helds in com-
mon v.itir the rest of the community; and I thank God
that those endeavours have not been unbl,,ssed, and that the
army at this time may present its ranks to the farmer, and
the shopkeeper, and the manufacturer, as being a fit profes-
sion for their children, without their leaving that ariny In
the course of a feev years debased and degraded, as they
would have done in former times. (Cheers.) I look upon
the improvements which have taken place in the comforts,
in the education, in the moral condition of the soldier to
have been among the greatest boons that have been con-
ferred by sueceeeivo Governments of country... The

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