The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-07 00:00:00

! moral prosperity of Canada ? Ido not wish to encum-
ber you with a mass of statistical details, but among
writers of all descriptions, political, statistical, and news-
! paper correspondents who have treated of the affairs of
North America, it would be impossible to find one who,
writing before 1850, does not aver that the contrast pre-
sented by Canada on one side, and the United States on
the other, is most unfavourable to the former, most dis-
couraging to those who prefer monarchical to republican
institutions. Well, since 1850 there is a unanimity al-
most as remarkable—and the Lord Provost has adverted
to that—the other way. It would be impossible to find
one, I think, who does not admit that since that period
the progress of Canada has been in all respects most
satisfactory, equalling, if not surpassing, the most fa-
voured parts of the Union. No people have been more
frank in declaration to this fact than our neighbours in
the United States. I need not say to you that there is
no subject upon which the people of the United States
are more proud than they are in reference to their sys-
tem of national education, and they certainly lave very
good reason to be so, because while we are is thir cove-
try proclaiming vociferously our zeal for popular educa-
tion, and proving our sincerity by uniting to overwhelm
every specific plan that is produced, there is actually in
that country in operation a system that is elevating the
intellectual standard of that people to an elevation
never before attained by any community. At the
meeting of the Education Board in New York, a paper
was read, representing the system of education in
Canada, as equal to that of Massachusetts or New
York, and the President recommended the system
adopted at Toronto, Canada West. Ido not think it
is undesirable that the population of Scotland should
know that there is a country not two weeks sailing
from Glasgow, possessing a fertile soil and a genial cli-
mate—possessing a population very much resembling
what you find in any Scottish county, sharing our views
and sentiments on all questions, moral, social, political,
and, above all, religious, with the means of attaining
elementary education, free of cost, and on conditions
that can do violence to no principle, on conditions at-
tainable by every child in the community, and where
every child of talent and industry may go to the higher
school, where a superior education is given on the same
terms, and from the superior school to the University.
Now, if any lady or gentleman in this room wants to put
the question, if we can get all these advantages by going
to Canada, why we cannot get them without going to
Canada, I implore that they will not expect me to an-
swer it. I came here expecting to have an opportunity
of debating and discussing great questions of govern-
ment, but this is so large an assemblage, and especially
there are so many of the fair sex present, that I am really
ashamed to enter on such topics. The last occasion on
which I made a similar appearance was certainly not in
a city so large as Glasgow, nor among a community so
influential, but in a city which is the capital of a State
in which a very great moral and social experiment is
being made, of which the issues are still doubtful, but
which no philanthropist can watch without interest,
mingled with anxiety and misgiving. In Portland, iu
the State of Maine, I had the honour of being received
as I am here to-day, and, having been introduced by the
mayor to the citizens, the band struck up " God Save
the Queen," and both to my surprise and delight the
audience stood during the whole time the air was play-
ing. We had dinner after the meeting, and at that din-
ner a practice was adopted which I hope will this even-
ing be honoured in the breach rather than the observance.
We had nothing to drink our toasts to but water. Among
those sentiments—for they are too wishy-washy to be
called toasts—we had " Success to the Allied Armies."
I have always considered that the most serious penalty
we could pay was any bad feeling in the United States
regarding our American colonies, and I made it one of my
first duties to endeavour to reduce that risk to the mini-
mum. Itis fair to say Cuba is very ill governed, and so
long as that state of things exists you cannot prevent
some of the American people from sympathising with
the disaffected. Had we governed Canada as Cuba has
been governed, we would have found her a thorn rather
than being, as she is, a rose. After the revolutionary
war we committed to the Americans, as citizens of the
United States, th© same rights of fishing on the coasts of
British North America as they had enjoyed previously
as subjects of Great Britain. They continued in those
rights np to 1812, and then we foolishly went to war.
At the close of the war our legal advisers decided that
all treaties were abrogated by the war, and that the
United States' people mast have a new treaty. We got
a new treaty restricting the rights. The American
fishermen did not fancy being excluded from the grounds
which their ancestors had been admitted to, and went
on fishing very much in the way they had done before—
not, of course, without a good deal of annoyance and
interruption. Weil, when this case came up before the
Governments of the colony and of the United States, the
latter showed a great deal of ingenuity on the occasion ;
they said they did not construe the treaty the same as
we did, and there were ingenious arguments on the one
side to show that "bays" were bays, and ingenious argu-
ments on the other side to show that bays were not bays,
and the British Government at last resolved to cut the
matter short and blow the trumpet of defiance ; and our
friends of America issued instructions to the contrary,
stating that their interpretation was the correct one. We
were just in this position—that a hot-headed captain of
an American sloop, with the Presidency in his view,
might have plunged us into a war at any moment.
In 1854 all the products of the North American colonies
were introduced into the markets of the United States
free of duty, and on the same terms as similar produc-
tions of the United States. We may hope that the pros-
perity of the last few years will proceed at an accelerated
ratio in time to conic. I do not think I ought to de-
tain you longer ; but I believe there is one subject up-
permost in the thoughts of all men at the present time,
and one to which the Lord Provost has adverted.
(Hear, hear.) And I cannot but feel that whatever may
be the ostensible object of a demonstration of this kind,
that any public man who receives at such a moment a
mark of consideration from his fellow subjects may be
expected—and reasonably expected—to state what his
opinions are upon a subject which engrosses the atten-
tion of the community. My opinions aro very easily
stated, and I have no hesitation in stating them. I say
that now we are in for this war we must fight it out like
men. (Loud cheers.) I do not say, throw away tne
scabbard ; in the first place, because I dislike all violent
metaphors—(a laugh)—and in the second place, because
I think a scabbard a very useful implement, when used
at the proper time, and the sooner we can '3150 it the bet-
tor. But I do say, having drawn your sword, do not
sheathe it till the purposes for which it has been drawn
are accomplished. (Renewed cheers.) I say, taking
the very lowest view of the matter, looking at it simply
115 a question of pounds, shillings, and pence, it appears
to me that nothing could be more demonstrably absurd
than to leave work of this kind half-finished. (Great
cheering.) Igo further. I have no hesitation in say-
ing—and I am rather glad to have an opportunity of
saying, because I have seen unwarranted statements to
the effect that I might have a different opinion—l
have no hesitation in saying that in my opinion, Lord
Palmerston and his Government have, for some time
past, been carrying on this war in a manner which en-
titles them to the favour and support both of those who
considered a war a necessity from the commencement,
and of others—no doubt a n'inority—who have the opi-
nion that, whatever the prospect of war may have been
at the outset, it was soon made a necessity by the blun-
ders of one set of diplomatists and by the passions and
temper of another. A great deal is now being said
about negotiations. I earnestly hope that these negoti-
ations may turn out to be of some use, but I must con-
fess that lam not very sanguine on that point. I think
myself—though I should be sorry to say anything to
give offence to persons in authority—that since this
business began, next to the successes of our arms, what
we have had most reason to be thankful to Providence
for is the failures of our diplomatists. (Hear, hear.)
What would have been our position now, if we had
succeeded in inducing Turkey to accept the proposals
which we made to her in the famous Note of Vienna,
and if, after it had been too late to mend the matter, we
had found that, in point of fact, we had secured for
Russia every single thing which Prince Menschikoff in-
tended to obtain, the eagle of France, the lion of Great
Britain, and the wild beasts of the other country crouch-
ing at her feet, as sentinels, to guard what she secured'?
Or what would have been our position if, under the in-
fluence of some judicial blindness, Russia had not refused
the proposals made the year following at Vienna, and
if we had got from her any paper arrangement such as
was suggested in these proposals, leaving her the prestige
and credit of the defence of Sebastopol ? (Cheers.) But
though I have said all this in respect to my views of
the necessity of carrying on war till we get a proper
peace, I most distinctly declare that I yield to no man,
not only in my desire to see peace re-established, but
in my abhorrence of the evils—moral, social, and poli-
tical--that a state of war involves. (Hear, hear.) Per-
haps I may feel more strongly on this point than others,
having had such opportunities of seeing the noble pur-
posestdivabty a people of our
ed to the utmost,
beitsucrunle
own
race,
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op veal
intelligence
and who have the entire power of regulating their own
affairs. I have seen in those countries triumphs of
peace, not only more beneficent, but as startling to the
imagination as the triumphs of war. I 'have seen the
triumph of what has been poetically and beautifully
styled the warfare with the wilderness—that warfare,
permit me to say, whose triumphs are achieved without
human suffering or bloodshed, and whose fruits of vic-
tory are the extension of the range of civilisation, the
extension of the area of British influence and authority,
and the extension of the market for the produce and
manufactures of this country. God grant the time may
Boon return when the energies of this country may be
directed into these salutary channels. Ido not think I
ehould trespass longer on your time. I have ventured
to talk upon colonial matters to some extent,
because I think it most important that the people of
this country should have their attention turned to these
questions, in order that they may secure the vantage
ground they hrive gained. I do not think these are ques-
tions which it is safe to leave altogether in the hands of
politicians, for the temptation to make the colonies sub-
servient to party interests at home is too strong to be
always successfully resisted. (Hear.) And nothing can
keep such a tendency better in check than the know-
ledge that the people of this country are takieg an in-
telligent concern in colonial affairs. Though I think we
have solved one important question in colonial policy—
viz., hovi, WieConcile complete liberty of local govern-