The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-25 00:00:00

we see no military, we see no Gendarmes, with mus-
kets, and bayonets, and sabres by their sides, en-
forcing order ; we see a few very civil policemen with
a bit of stick in their hands—(i laugh)—anxious to
help us on occasion, to inform us our way, and where
we can see what we want to look at; we must say it
is marvellous to us to see such a country as this,
where the people themselves preserve such admirable
order."—(Hear, hear.) Well, gentlemen (I have said
to my foreign friends who have spoken thus to me),
in the first place, this is owing to the great good
sense, to the goodness of heart, and to the noble qua-
lities which belong to the British nation. But,
beyond that, it is owing to this—that justice is well
and impartially administered, without favour or affec-
tion, without influence to sway it; that is one reason
why men trust to the law, and do not take the law into
their own hands, because they know that those in
whose hands the law is will administer it with equality
and with justice.—(Hear, hear.) Then I say, another
reason is this, that every man here is at
liberty to express his opinions, whatever they may
be. If he is wrong, he is met by those who are
right; if he is right he convinces those who are
wrong.--(" 'lsar, hear," and a laugh.) The conflict
cf opinion is a quiet warfare always going on, and
leads to the happiest results.—(Hear, hear.) But
then, I have said there is another thing tco, that the
Government and the Parliament of this country have
for a great number of years past been laborionsly,
sedulously, and constantly occupied in looking out
for, and in carrying into execution improvements.—
(Hear.) We have, I mean, the British nation and
the British Parliament, and the successive Govern-
ments that have ruled the country, have been occu-
pied in removing abuses, and in making improvements,
and therefore the people are contented—(Hear! hear)
—are satisfied with what has been done ; and, if there
remain other things to do, they are confident that in
due course of time, and with due deliberation, those
other things will also meet with consideration:—
(Hear, hear.) I have said to them—The first thing
done was that the Test and Corporation Acts were
repealed, and the Dissenters of this country—a most
valuable part of the community—full of intelligence,
most important members of the community, were
placed upon an equal footing in all civil and social
and political respects with their fellow-citizens.—
(Hear, hear.) I have said, there was the first step of
the improvement of recent times.—(Hear.) Then,
the Parliament repealed the laws which imposed penal-
ties and disabilities upon the Catholics, and by that
means the Catholics were admitted upon equal terms to
all the civil and political rights which are enjoyed by
their Protestant fellow •countrymen. We have lately
indeed, in spite of that, been reproached by some mem-
bers of that body, at home and abroad, with intole-
rance and persecution, because we thought it right
that no foreign Sovereign should dispose of titles in
this realm, and should cut up and quarter the king-
dom into bishoprics—(Loud cries of " Hear, hear")
—encroaching thereby upon the prerogative of our
Queen, and trenching upon the independence of the
country.—(l.lear, hear.) I said, in all other respects,
in regard to every privilege and right, the Catholics
are free, and upon the same footing, as the Prostes-
tants ; and I wish that the degree of intolerance and
persecution of which some of our Catholic fellow-
countrymen have complained was the only degree of
intolerance and persecution which Protestants had to
experience in some of the Catholic countries of Eu-
rope—(Hear, hear)--where Protestantism is an
offence, where the inculcation of Protestant doctrine
is a crime—(Hear, hear)—and where the Bible is
reckoned a dangerous book, which no man is allowed
to read, and which, when seized, is evidence of crimi-
nality on the part of the person who was in possession
of it.—(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") I speak of
the south of Europe, of Rome, of Naples, of Tus-
cany, of Spain, of Portugal. I do justice to other
enlightened Catholic countries, such as France and
Belgium, and even Austria, where a far different sys-
tem, a liberal system is pursued, and where (in the
case of Belgium) the Catholic Government and Ca-
tholic Parliament give stipends to Protestant clergy-
men, who perform their spiritual duties to the British
Protestant communities there—(Hear, hear)—a fact
which, to the honour of the Belgian nation, ought to
be known, because it shows that there is nothing in
the most sincere belief of the Catholic religion that is
incompatible with perfect toleration and liberty to
those of different communions.—(Hear.) Then came
the law granting to the towns of England, by muni-
cipal corporations, the power of governing and ar-
ranging their own affairs.—(Hear.) Then came the
law (I told my foreign friends) by which the burden
of tithes was entirely altered in its nature and direc-
tion, and the farmer was no longer liable to have pay-
ments taken from him in kind, and new and progressive
improvements did not subject him to increased tax-
ation.—(Hear.) Then (I said) came the law by which
import duty was taken off from the food of tnan.—
(Cheers.) And lastly, the law which, by altering
our navigation system, enabled the poor of this
country to enjoy the advantrge of the cheapest
means of transport to this country of those coin
modities which they require from foreign lands.—
(Hear.) Well (I said to those foreign gentlemen)
this is the secret of the little stick you saw in the
hand of the policeman, and the absence of red and
blue coats—(Cheers)—and you may depend upon it,
any country which pursues the same course, will
exhibit the coins spectacle of order which you so much
admire here.—(Renewed cheers.) Now Icm aware,
gentlemen, that upon one of the points which I have
just touched upon there is not that unanimity of
opinion iu the country which may by this time be
said to be established with regard to the others, be-
cause there are still some persons, and lam bound to
say I believe a very considerable number, who, with
respect to the law which repealed the import duty
upon corn, think that that was an injury rather than
a benefit, and who look to the reimposition of that duty
under the general term of "protection to agriculture."
Gentlemen, in all human affairs it is a great point of
wisdom to be able to distinguish between that which
is only difficult and that which is absolutely impos-
sible.—(bear.) To encounter that which is difficult
is a very noble pursuit ; it excites the faculties ;
it developes the energies of man, and it is
by struggling against difficulties, and by overcoming
them, that everything that is great and glorious has
been achieved.—(Hear, hear.) But when men at-
tempt that which is impossible they only lay up in
store for themselves disappointment, and waste their
energies upon a fruitless pursuit.—(Hear, hear.)
With regard to the reimposition of duties on corn for
the purpose of protection, that is to say for the pur-
pose—for the specific and avowed purpose of raising
the price of food, for the purpose of increasing the
profits of the owners and occupiers of land, I venture,
with all humility, to say that when you see the river
Exe running in) from the sea to Tiverton, instead of
running down from Tiverton to the sea, you may
then look upon it that protection is near at hand.—
(Laughter and cheers.) Gentlemen, in saying that, I
feel that I am foreseeing and expressing an opinion
of the continuance of that which is for the benefit of
all classes of the community.—(Loud cries of "Hear,
hear.") No man can deny that the cheapness and
abundance of food is eminently advantageous to the
labouring classes.—(Hear, hear.) The labouring
classes are the most numerous part of the population.
No man, I think, who looks with any judgment to the
construction of the social edifice but must see that
the labouring classes are the foundation of the fabric-
--and that unless that foundation is solid and firm
and stable the fabric itself cannot be expected to last.
—(Hear.) Nobody can hope to make the poor rich;
that is not the dispensation of Providence in the for-
mation of the world-4n the creation of the human
race.—(Hear.) There may be some other planet, or
there may be some land in this planet hitherto undis-
covered, like that lubber land—that fabulous land of
which we have heard, where it is said that pigs run
about ready roasted, with knives and forks sticking
in their backs, crying " Come and eat me."—
(Laughter.) But unless in some favoured region of
that kind it is plain that men must labour for their
existence— (Hear)—that those who begin only with
their physical labour cannot expect to rise high in the
scale of wealth, and that there must be a very unequal
distribution of the goods of this world among the
people of this world.—(Hear.) You may by very
bad laws or by internal convulsions impoverish the
rich, but I defy you by any laws to enrich the poor.
—(Hear.) But although you cannot enrich the
poor, you may at least do a great deal to make their
poverty comfortable, by giving them the command of
as great a portion of the necessaries of life as the die-
pensations of Providence and the state of society
will enable them to have within their reach.--
(Hear.) That is precisely what has been done by
the repeal of the corn-laws.—(Hear) An instance
of the manner in which it has benefited the poorer
classes was stated by my right hon. friend the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer in a late debate in the House
of Commons. He stated that he had sent to him,
from that part of Yorkshire to which he belongs, a
comparative statement showing the wages of an agri-
cultural labourer some 14 or 15 years ago, with the
number of loaves of bread which he could then pur-
chase with those wages, and then the present wages
of the same class of men and the command which
those reduced wages now give him. It appeared that
about 14 or 15 years ago the wages in that part of
the country, where wages are high, from being near
manufacturing places, were 15s. a week, and with
that a man could then buy 12 loaves of bread ; the
wages this year were 12s. a week, but with that 12s.
the man could buy 24 loaves a week.—(Hear, hear.)
But he would not want 24 loaves of bread, and that
left him therefore a surplus for other conveniencies
and comforts, which tended much to cheer the poverty
of his existence.—(Hear, hear.) I say, then, that
c o
n thosenteatnh
for the \
oe
nftt' el o
f t
thatlaboriousof a the
tcooms
classes
e
comfort and well-being and
be au
must feel
abovefoun-
dationeel m
them,ust m that the repeal of the corn-laws and the cheapness f
food is really a benefit to all (Hear, hear.) But
out
let us take thefermer. I myself am, in a very small and
unscientilie way,faruic,T.—(lies,r, hear.) Ido not

profess to put my knowledge in competition with that
of many of ou—of many whom I represent. But
the farmer and the landlord, the producers of
the corn, ru n away with the fact that corn, wheat we
will say, hi is greatly fallen in price, and then they
say they h ave lost all the difference between the for-
mer price and the present low price. But they ought
to take inl .o account the other side of the balance, and
to see hole • much the cost of production and their out-
goings have diminished at the same time that the price
of wheat has fallen.—(Hear, hear.) Now, will any
man loo's, on the one side, how much he has lost
upon an acre of wheat in the market, and on the other
how much he has gained in producing that acre of
wheat. First of all, the cost of his seed is less ; the
wages of labour are leas ; he gets manure cheaper
and of better quality, and has a greater command of
it ; all his n iachinery is cheaper than it was and better
in its qualiry. His poor-rates are less.—(Hear, hear.)
His composition for tithes is gradually diminishing
in proportion as the average of the cheap years are
beginning to tell upon the amount which he has
to pay.— (Hear, hear.) His rent in most cases, where
it was not; very low indeed, has been diminished.—
(Hear, hear.) And then, besides that, there is that
increased skill which I am happy to say is extending
rapidly over the whole country ; and, by attending to
the progressive development of science as bearing upon
agriculture he is enabled to produce a greater quan-
tity out of the same extent of land than he produced
before.—(Hear, hear.) And therefore, when we look
at all these things, I think the farmer even will find
that if he strikes a fair and accurate balance his loss
is far less than he imagines it to have been. But after
all, in the long run, it is perfectly certain that it is
a question between landlord and tenant.—(Hear.)
The farmer hires the land of the owner; he employs
a certain amount of capital in working it; he must
make interest upon his capital, or he cannot live; and
therefore the bargain must ultimately so adjust that
he can make his fair interest out of his capital under
the new and altered circumstances in which he is
placed.—(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen—l say, then, that
the order and contentment of this country arise from
causes which I have taken the liberty of pointing
out. And we may, indeed, console ourselves with
the feeling that this land has been peculiarly fa-
voured by the dispensations of Providence. We have
Leen exempt, during the course of a long and bloody
war, from all the innumerable calamities which at-
tend any country that is itself the scene of war. We
passed through that long period with successes which
we will not boast of, but which procured us an ho-
nourable and a secure peace ; and during the continu-
ance of that peace this country has advanced in all
the elements of national prosperity, and has set an
example to the world in the arts of peace as it did in
the triumph of war.—(Hear, hear.) Well, then, gen-
tlemen, we ought to endeavour to deserve the favour
which has thus been dispensed to us—(Hear, hear)—
and the way in which the Government of this country
can deserve it, and the way in which the people of
this country can deserve it, is, I consider, by
uniting together to perform those high and noble
functions which I think it is the destiny of this em-
pire to fulfil.—(Hear, hear.) I think our func-
tions are, first of all, to set an example to the world of
humanity, of enlightenment, of order, and of good
conduct, both in public and private. I think in the
next place that it is our duty—the duty, I mean, of
this nation—to employ that influence which a great
and powerful country like this always possesses, for
the purpose of promoting and securing peace among
the other nations of the world, and endeavouring, as
far as we can with propriety do so, to persuade other
Governments to extend to other countries as much as
possible of those civil and political blessings of which
we ourselves are so proud.—(Hear, hear.) I think,
gentlemen, that the people of this country have nobly
performed their part of that duty ; and I can assure
you that it is the anxious desire of her Majesty's Go-
vernment not to be backward in performing what be-
longs to them.—(Hear, hear.) The people of this
country did nobly perform that duty in the course of
the last year, when they supported unanimously and
enthusiastically the Government of England in exert-
ing its influence to prevent a foreign Sovereign from
being compelled to violate the laws of hospitality by
sacrificing the men who had thrown themselves upon
him for protection.—(Cheers.) Those effarts were suc-
cessful, and I am happy to say that the last of
those exiles are now on their way either to the
shores of England or to the shores of the United
States, according to their own choice and wishes.—
(Renewed cheers.) That, however, was but a momen-
tary difficulty. It was one, however, which called
forth the most honourable expression of generous feel-
ing on the part of the people of this country—(Hear,
hear)—but there has been another subject far longer
in duration, requiring far greater and more deter-
mined exertions, far more considerable sacrifices, in
regard to which the people of this country have per-
formed their duty in a manner which will make their
name honoured to the latest ages.—(Cheers.) I am
adverting now to that subject of which my Rev.
Friend has spoken ; I mean the question of slavery
and the slave trade.—(Hear.) The crimes committed
in regard to African slavery and the African slave
trade, if they could be put together, are, I am sure,
greater in amount than all the crimes that ever were
committed by the human race from the beginning of
the world to the present time.—(Hear, hear.) lam
satisfied that, if you put together all the individual
crimes which the most guilty men ever committed,
they would not occasion such an amount of human
misery as has been created by that detest-
able and infernal traffic. (Hear, hear.) We
ourselves—rather, our forefathers, those who went
before us—were stained with the same guilt ; and it
required a great sense of right, and great exertions
on the part of good men who lived in those days—
Wilberforce and Clarkson, and others—to wean this
country from the course to which it bad been wedded,
and to induce the people of this country to abandon
the slave trade themselves.—(Hear.) They suc-
ceeded.—(Hear.) We began by washing our hands
of this guilt. Then we did that which was a great
and noble deed • we emancipated our slaves at a great
pecuniary sacrifice to this country. Never was a
sacrifice made with more cheerfulness and more wil-
lingness, however small it might be, than that great
sacrifice which the people of this country then made.
—(Hear.) Gentlemen, our example has been of great
value. I do not mean to say that the people of France,
who very early took a strong interest in that cause,
would not, possibly, of their own accord have done
what they have done; but it was not till after we had
begun that they pursued the same track. They have
now pursued it. They have abolished their own slave
trade and they have emancipated their own slaves.
This, then, is an additional bond of union between two
great nations.—(Hear, hear.) Sometimes nations are
united iu the bonds of injustice; here the union con-
sists in a community of humanity and noble benevo-
lence.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) Gentlemen, we
have laboured long in.this course, the present Govern-
ment most anxiously and sincerely—(Hear, hear)—
but we would not upon any account take to our-
selves more credit than justly belongs to us ; it is to
the people of England that the merit belongs, and
former Governments have followed the same impulse
that we have done.—(Hear, hear.) It has been the
steady pursuits of all Governments for some time
past, supported and urged on by the public
opinion of the people of England—(Hear, hear)—and
I am glad to say that we do now see something like
an approaching termination of this great guilt—
(Hear, hear)—that we have made, especially during
the last twelve months, great strides in that course—
(Hear, hear)—and that there is every prospect, I
think I may say, that our long-continued labours
and great sacrifices may at length be crowned with
glorious success.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) We have
succeeded in inducing the Government of Brazil, which
was the great culprit of late, to alter its course, and
to go in the way of justice as far as it has been able
to do.—(Hear, hear.) Ido not mean to say that we
ought to be so confident of its repentance as to en-
tirely trust to its spontaneous exertions ; the thing re-
quires that we should be watchful and active— (Hear,
hear)—but the import to Brazil has dwindled down
next to nothing—(Hear, hear)—and that which is
equally important is, that on the coast of Africa legie
timate trade is taking the place of slave trade—(Hear,
hear)—and that the natives, to do them justice (with
the single exception of some of their chiefs who derive

great profits from the slave trade, greater perhaps they
think, though there they are mistaken, than they
would derive from legitimate trade)—the people of
Africa, when you come to look at it, are as repugnant
to the slave trade as we are—they are the victims of
it.—(llear, hear.) They want European commodities;
they want our Sheffield and Birmingham and Blan-
chester goods ; they have been told hitherto--" If you
want them you must pay for them in human flesh
and blood," and human flesh and blood were produced.
Now they are told—" Pay us in palm oil, and ground
nut, and cotton, and ivory, and gold dust ;" and they
say, "We would much rather pay in these than in
flesh and blood; here is our palm oil, our cotton, our
gold dust, and give us your goods, and let us have the ;
satisfaction of paying in these things"—( Hear, hear)—
without
violating those ties which even in the bosom

of savages are held dear and sacred.—(Hear, hear.)
Gentlemen, it is manifest that i❑ the track of the

merchant Will follow the missionary, though some-
times the precedence is inverted and the merchant
only follows the missionary;. but hand in hand they
will go—(Hear, hear)—and in proportion as we shall
succeed in diffusing commerce and civilization in
Africa, so will the light of Christianity be dif-
fused over that darkened quarter of the world—
(hear, hear, and cheers)—and we shall have the
satisfaction, not only of washing the white man from
the guilt which now stains his colour, and makes
it darker than that of the negro, but of bringing',
the negro within the pale of Christianity, and of ,
conferring eternal benefits upon a race hitherto only
loaded with calamity by Christians.—(Cheers.) Gen-
tlemen, if the people of Engird will only support us,
as I am sure they will, in a little longer continuance
of the means by which this great end is alone to be