The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-25 00:00:00

distinguished opponents of those great measures which have
fundamentally reformed your commercial system. (Cheers.)
Nevertheless, while I listened to the vaticinations of the
hon. member for Buckingham, my memory ran back to the
time when I heard him, not in this house, for we then had
not the pleasure of enjoying his company here—uttering
the, same dismal prophecies on an occasion when it was
proposed to do justice to British trade as compared with
foreign trade, by imposing a stamp on foreign bills of ex-
change. Upon that occasion the hon. gentleman was a
distinguished member of a deputation from the port of
London, and he assured me that if we ventured to
impose a stamp duty on foreign bills we should drive
the trade from the market of London, and Landon would RO
longer be the centre of money operations. That gave me
uncomfortable sensations—(laughter)—but we persevered
with the plan, the house adopted it, the stamp was imposed,
it has contributed for six years to the revenue of the coun-
try, and London is still the centre of money operations,
(Hear, and laughter.) But I have now done, as I promised,
with questions of this kind, which, however important, will
be more conveniently discussed on another opportunity, and
I come to the general issue before us. On Monday night I
heard the right hon. gentleman the member for Bucking-
hamshire explain to the House the dignified course which
his party had adopted. The right hon. gentleman said—
and I, for one, and I believe the generality of the house,
went along with him in what he said—" We have scorned
to raise a partial issue; we have rejected the hands that
might be held out to us from this and that alarmed and
timorous interest ; we have rested our cause on the broad
ground of general merits, and on that ground alone we seek
to take issue." Upon that declaration of the right hon
member for Buckinghamshire, I bethought me of the hang:
guage of Burke, who lamented that the age of chivalry had
gone ; and for a moment—aye, for a whole evening—l was
in hopes that the age of chivalry had come back again—
(laughter)—for I heard it declared that it was intolerable to
meet a groat measure of this kind—a national and interne •
tional measure—by petty and paltry combinations of A and
B and C, who object to this and to that, and by putting to-
gether their separate units endeavour to obtain a mass of
force sufficient to overturn the whole scheme. (Cheers and
laughter.) Those were the sentiments expressed on Monday
night; but it is a bad world we live in—(laughter)—and if
any man suffers himself to be deluded for a moment with the
notion that high ideas govern the conduct of persons and
parties, there is a great chance that in a very short time he
will be painfully undeceived. (Laughter.) For my part, I
was undeceived when I opened the newspapers next morn.
ing, for I found there that a right hon. gentleman had com-
mitted himself in the manner lam now going to describe. That
right hon. gentleman attended a meeting of an alarmed and
timorous interest, which, fearful of the withdrawal of the
protection they enjoyed, might be acted upon, it was hoped,
to oppose a great national measure on account of their own
narrow interests. (Cheers.) There is one valuable principle
of free trade which appears to be well understood by the hon.
gentleman opposite, and that is the division of labour. While
the right hon. member for Buckinghamshire was announc-
ing in sounding periods the high ground on which he took
his stand, another right hon. gentleman was holding differ-
ent language in a different place—l mean the right hon. ba-
ronet the memter for Droitwich. (Hear, and laughter.) The
right hon. baronet attended a meeting of a set of gentlemen
who are well known to almost every successive Chancellor of
the Exchequer—namely, those who are called growers of
hops. (Hear, and laughter.) The county to which the right
hon. baronet is an ornament is not a great hop-growing
county; it produces 11 per cent. of the total consumption,
and consequently—l believe lam correct inthe statement—
until the eventful week in which we now are the right hon.
baronet had never thought it worth his while to attend a
meeting of hop-growers. (Laughter.) But on this par-
ticular occasion, when the financial scheme and a chance of
opening the trade with France, were in question, my
right hon. friend the member for Droitwich, his bowels with
mercy and sympathy moved towards the hop-growers, ap-
peared for the first time at a meeting among the champions
of that sovereign interest. (Cheers and laughter.) And what
was the advice given by my right hon. friend within 24 hours
of the time when the right hon. member for Buckingham-
shire had so surreptitiously excited our admiration and al-
most enthusiasm by the enunciation of lofty principles ?
(Laughter.) I have miide inquiry about the accuracy of the
report, and therefore I have less hesitation in quoting a few
words from it. My right hon. friend spoke among hop-
growers and said thathe was not connected with a great hop-
growing county. I suppose his audience knew that as well as.
'he; but he went on to observe that his county had
a good deal of land planted with hops, and he thought it
right to attend the meeting. My right hon. friend then
entered on hops, but very lightly, and did not show that
acquaintance with the manipulation of details which no one
knew better how to employ when master of details; but it
was a resistless impulse which brought' him among those
unfortunate people in order to point out the way of salvation
to them—(cheers and laughter)—and he said, " I .would
suggest, as a matter of business"—(great laughter and
cheers)—the house will see that, unlike the right hon.
member for Buckinghamshire, who spoke in a tone of feel-
ing and romance, the right hon. baronet, observing the
division of labour agreed on, applied himself rigidly and
without any chivalrous feeling to the part alletted to him.
(Renewed laughter.) He said—" I would suggest, as a
matter of business, that instead of their going to the Chan-.
caller of the Exchequer they should instruct their members
to go at once to the House of Commons, and say, ' This
budget does not suit us, and we will oppose it " As for the
budget itself, the right hon. baronet said he looked on it as
"a rash, meddlesome, and unsatisfactory scheme." (Cheers
from the Opposition.) That is all very well.. Regarding
the budget in that light, it is doubtless the right honourable
baronet's duty to oppose it, but he never thought it at all
necessary to understand whether the hop-growers he was
addressing partook of his opinion. He did not go to them
and ask, " Do you think the budget bad ?" but he said,
" Your particular interests are attacked, and therefore turn
against the whole budget." (Loud cheers from the Minis-
terial benches.) The right hon. gentleman went on :
"And if all the interests injuriously affected by it could
combine together, giving up their immediate views with re-
gard to their own individual interests, the result would very
soon be to get rid of it altogether. He therefore counselled
them to unite with other interests and bring such a pressure
to bear upon Parliament as would put an end to the budget
at a blow.
That is the disappointment which I for one have undergone
in comparing a declaration in full of the highest mediaeval
spiritmade by the right hon. member for Buckinghamshire
with the more practical proceedings of the right hon. mem-
ber for Droitwich as a matter of business. (Laughter.)
But, however that may be, and whatever may be the pro-
- ceedings that may be taken by those who sat on the same
bench with the right hon. baronet at the meeting of hop-
growers or others, whether reported ;or not reported, hav-
ing availed himself of the little light that was thrown on
• them through the medium of the daily journals, let me now
endeavour to deal with the motion as it stands on our books,
and apart altogether from the question of what interests can
be got to support it. But this lam bound to say, after the
challenge given by the right hon. gentleman.—the invita-
tion given by him to those parties—that lam deeply con-
vinced that all such invitations in a country like England
will miserably fail. (Cheers.) Those who think that this
budget does them injustice will use their best exertions to
defend themselves upon their own ground and with their
own legitimate weapons, but they will not, from fear of
losing their own legal privilege, be deluded and seduced
into an error so grave as that of absorbing the greatest na-
tional interests in their own individual and particular con-
venience as a class, and they will give, I am convinced, an
impartial judgment upon the main issue which is brought
before them. (Cheers.) The right hon. and learned gen-
tleman (Mr. Whiteside) who spoke last night described
the budget, and referred to the descriptions that had been
given of it. He said my right hon. friend the member for
Coventry had characterised it as an ambitious budget. I
know the position of my right hon. friend, and I cannot in
the slightest degree quarrel with him for the use of that
epithet, but I am sure he will admit to me that if it shall
be found that the people of England receive these financial
plans with approval it is not because they are fond of am-
bitious budgets, but because they wish for measures
which they think will contribute to the extension of trade
and the prosperity of the nation. (Cheers.) Some one
else went far beyond my right hen. friend and said
is was an audacious budget. The right hon. and
learned gentleman himself would not go so far as that, but
said it was a bold experiment upon the country. (Opposi-
tion cheers.) lam desirous that the house should come to a
clear and conclusive view of the question who it is that is
treading the safe paths of experience, and who it is that is
chargeable to-night with objections and prepositions that
are ambitious, that are audacious, or that are bold experi-
ments upon the country. (Loud cheers.) My hon. friend
the member for Birmingham (Mr. Bright) gave a different
description of the financial scheme. (Opposition cheers.)
He gave a description which was not the most complimentary
to the author of an ambitious budget. He said, looking at
it from a directly opposite point of view, " the Chancellor
of the Exchequer can lay no claim to the merit of originality,
he is simply walking in the footsteps of those who have
gone before him, and because those footsteps have led !Is to
safety in other times therefore he walks in them now. ' I
affirm that that is the true description of the budget.
(Cheers.) It does not lay claim to the merit of originality—
if originality be a merit—but, at any rate, such have
neen
the providence and sagacity of those who have gone before
us that there is no need of originality. They have laid
down the pattern of wise and prudent conduct in respect of
public finance, and all we have to do is to follow in the
course they have indicated. (Cheers.) I must be per-
mitted to say that I really pass by the proposition of the
right hon. gentleman who last addressed ut, who conceives
that this motion, which was born at the meeting of a great
Party, has been adopted in consequence of the determina-
tion of a distinguished nobleman to come forth from almost
monastic seclusion to which he had retired, in order to
rescue his country from danger (murmurs)—l can't con-
- ceive that such a motion is to be regarded in such a
light. (Cries of " Who ?") I mean Lord Derby.
(Laughter and cheers.) I speak from what I have seen
reported, without contradiction, as having been the
language of the noble earl. (Hear, hear.) That noble
earl said that he had determined not to become a candi-
date for the resumption of his office as Prime Minis-
ter, after having twice held and lost it in a manner not
satisfactory to himself, unless under circumstances of some
rash and dangerous scheme vitally assailing the best inte-
rests of the country. (Cheers.) Under these circumstances
he would come from his retirement and again be at the
command of his party. (No, no.) I apprehend lam right
in supposing that Lord Derby is at the command of his Sove-
reign. (Cheers.) Ido not wish to detain the house by a
verbal contest, but I imagine the right bon. gentleman who
last spoke treated this as a motion which did, not disturb
the trea and was not intended, if carried, to disturb the
Government. (Cheers.) As to disturbing the treaty, the
treaty parts with £1,200,000 of the ordinary revenue of the
year, and the motion declares that it is not expedient to add
to the existing deficiency by diminishing. the ordinary re-
venue, and that I understand to be a plain and flat contra-
diction of our scheme. In the same manor I ant right