The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-01 00:00:00

BANQUET 70 HER 111AJEsTY'S
MINISTERS.

Yesterday evening a banquet was given by the
Lord Mayor and Lady ➢layoress to her Majesty's
Ministers, the guests numbering upwards of 250.
The toasts of Her Majesty, the Prince of Wales,
and the Army, Navy, and Volunteers having been
proposed and responded to,

The LORD MAYOR proposed " Her Majesty's
3linisters," and with that toast the name of one re-
spected by all, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.
(Loud cheers.)

Mr. GLADSTONE—My Lord Mayor, Ladies and
Gentlemen,—On the part of my colleagues, not less
than on my own, I tender to you my most cordial
and respectful thanks for the honour which you have
been pleased to confer upon us. There can be no
period at which it can beg duty void of inter st for the
First Minister of the Crown to acknowledge the
marks of confidence and kindness received from
asseMblies of his fellow-conntrytnen ; but
within this hall that task acquires a peculiar
rigiii-
ficance. lon have been pleased, my Lord May(4-,
to propose this toast as the head of the first
. .

municipality of this country, if not of the
world, arid when we become the guests of the chief
of that municipality we feel ourselves to be, through
no insignificant symbol, at least in contact with the
nation on behalf of which we act. To interchange
sentiments with a body so qualified to represent
that nation, and to acknowledge the tokens of its
kindness, is always a task that rises far above the
level of routine. At this time, my Lord Mayor, it
acquires even a higher character, for you have been
pleased to observe that we have taken office with
peculiar responsibilities. It is not for my colleagues,
it is not for me, to complain of the difficult char-
acter of the task which we have to perform, be-
cause we ourselves recognised the difficulties, and
we are accused even of having created those diffi-
culties before we acceded to office. The state of
the circumstances with which we have to deal, and
the peculiar nature of the questions which occupied
the attention of Parliament, did not take us by sur-
prise. But if we have an arduous task to confront,
I speak for myself, we must admit that there have
been peculiar advantages attending them. I must
mention, first, that gracious favour and that con-
stitutional support which every Government in
this country has, for a period of thirty-two
years, received from her Majesty, and I name
that as a peculiar advantage, because in my judg-
ment it is a grave offence on the partTof Ministers
to profess or insinuate that special favours are
granted to a particular Administration which are
denied to another. I say this simply because I
think it is a debt of duty to that sovereign who has
so long reigned on the throne of England and in
the hearts of the nation, that those who have the
honour to serve her should take occasion to ac-
knowledge on every fitting opportunity with what
exemplary fidelity, with what perfect but absolute
loyalty the prime duties of the Sovereign are at all
times performed. (Cheers.) I may presume to
say, my Lord Myor, that I Lave not keen un-
fortunate in the nature, in the qualities and in
the stamp of the men whom I was not only
enabled, but constrained to associate with me
in the works of the Government ; and I do not
think that, as far as the experience of the past
six months is concerned, that there has been I
any disposition on the part of the country to
complain of the manner in which either the ad-
ministrative or the legislative duties of the great
departments of State have been generally dis-
charged. (Hear, bear.) But also, my Lord Mayor,
I must venture to discharge a debt of duty to the
House of Commons. This House of Commons was
elected under circumstances novel and peculiar; it
sprang from the heart and breast of the people, it
bears upon it more of the notes of contact with the
masses of the nation than any house of Commons
ever gathered within the venerable walls of West-
minster ; and it would appear that in proportion as
the scope of its contact with popul ir sentiment has I
been extended its capacity for the discharge of Par-
liamentary duties has been increased. At least I
may presume to say that, after having sat for very
many years as a member of that assembly, and
never without a profound and, if may say so, a I
filial admiration of its great qualities, at no period,
I think, have I known a body of representatives of
the people gathered together with as clear a con-
sciousness of tbe purposes of which they are sent
there ; or with as little disposition to waste, either
in the pettiness of intrigue, or in the idle and self-
seeking discussion, the precious time that ought to
be devoted to tbe noble task of building up the
happiness of the people. (Cheers.) Indeed, my
Lord Mayor, to refer to one peculiar subject with
which official relations have long connected me, I
may say that for the first time—for the first time
certainly during very many years—l see a House of
Commons more disposed to take a strict measure of
its duties, and in particular to take a strict measure
of its duties on one critical and testing subject--I
mean that of public economy than either the pith-
lic out of doors, or even that daily Press by
which the interests of the public are in general so
well represented and defended, is aware of. I dis-
charge this debt of gratitude to the assembly in
which for so many years it has been my daily duty,
and I may say my daily satisfaction, to labour for
what I deem to be the public good. But your
lordship could hardly omit, and have not omitted,
at a juncture like this, to refer to that special pur-
pose, that high, transcendent interest, which, rising
far above the mass of public questions, involves
such great issues and results, and attract to it and
claims for itself a special character—l mean the
great question connected with the condition of one
of these three kingdoms, to the loyal and main por-
tion of which it has been our duty during the pre-
sent session to address ourselves. The Lord
Mayor, this company is well aware, as the whole
country is well aware, that the House of Com-
mons, and that her Majesty's Government in the
House of Commons, have at least bestowed their
best endeavonrs upon the conduct of the measure
which is, both by what it is in itself and by what it
promises in the future, almost a vital and essential ,
portion of the work of peace for Ireland and for the
security of the Empire. (Cheers.) During three
months, my Lord Mayor, we expended the chief
part of our care upon the maturing of that mea-
sure, and on that measure three months were but a
short time to spend. Since it passed beyond our
portals there has been—or I have been told there
has been—an excitement in the country. We
have read of meetings here and there, and there
has been a blaze like the blaze of sky-rockets,
repeated from point to point around the whole
horizon. We are told of the indignation of the
public—we are told of the reaction in public senti-
ment. The course we have pursue 1 and the mea-
sure we have proposed are branded in language
more severe than it would be convenient on this
festive occasion to recal ; and sanguine anticipa-
tions were entertained, in the first instance, that that
measure would elsewhere meet with a speedy doom.
But since these anticipations were disappointed,
other anticipations have been raised up to serve
the same turn and purpose ; that though its name
and phantom perhaps might be suffered to escape
from legislative condemnation, yet it would come
back to us so altered that we should nut know it,
and that we should not have any choice except
total and utter failure in both the name and sub-
stance of our work, or else to accept but the name
with the loss of the substance. My Lord Mayor,
under these circumstances, and amidst this tumult
and excitement, as we arc told there is, we have re-
mained--I speak for myself and my colleagues, and
I speak as an °Wryer of the House of the house
of Commons—we have rente ined in a'`ate of per-
fect tranquillity. (Cheers.)lVe have rem tined
trim-
quil for these reasons. In the first place, it is to us
a matt r not of grudge, or of jealousy, but of satis-
faction that our work should be reviewed elsewhere.
We can honestly say that we have bestowed upon
it the hest of our care, and have laboured with no
stint of our time or of our faculties to perform the
duty committed to us by the country. But at the
same time, no doubt, there must be faults in our
work, and, as was well said by my noble friend Earl
Granville—for whom perhaps,parenthetically,l may
be permitted to convey the expression of his deep
regret that grave
indisposition, and the absolute ne-