The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-18 00:00:00

[PRIOR 4D. STAMPED 515.

our cathedral service, and we shall have a sort of Dutch
concert instead—(a laugh)—and if our cathedral service
is aliolish-edrmarly may think that deans and canons
could also be duipedsed with. (Hear, and a laugh.) I
will now, if you will suffer me, touch upon one or two
other points.. During the last session of Parliament
horse, Queen
which
Las r; a
rvery little has .heen`done by way of legislation in the
she
progress of reform, and much blame has been attri•
buted to Parliament for that reason, I think without
a cause. You must please to recollect that her Ma•
jetty
has
sden beenbo ld
mountedlyw ithnn
thea peoplegre a great
fall cry at her heels. What follows She has ridden
that war-horse to the destruction of the supremacy
of the princlial Power of, Europe. A blow has
been struck—morally, if not physically, struck—
which will be long remembered by that Power. I be-
lieve that that war was extremely popular, and no doubt
exists in my mind but that the people of England were
determined that England should take her place among
the nations ; that England should have a voice, and, if
necessary, that England should have an arm—(cheers)—
and Queeh Victoria has carried that determination out.
It would be unjust in us to deny to Lord Palmerston the
merit which I think and which you think, I see, belongs
to hiln for having been—to use an old expression so often
applied to William Pitt—" the pilot that weathered the
storm." (Cheers.) To Lord Palmerston, with his deci-
sion, his energy, and his great capabilities, I bow with
every reverence ; but I wish Lord Palmerston was more
of a Liberal. (Cheers ) He has well maintained his high
position in dealing with the affairs of the war, but we
wish him now to turn his attention to moral progress
and the reformation of abuses. (Cheers.) Will he do that
remains to be proved ; it will bo for you to judge of him
by his acts ; I am sorry to judge of him by his antece-
dents. Among the questions of the day arose that of
the.mal-admi-oistration of .cevtain departments of Go-
vernment dello.. the war: 'lr. Roebuck asked for a
committee, as phe does on all occasions, daringly,
boldly, and with ability. He obtained that committee.
It is not so very difficult to obtain a committee,
because it binds the House of Commons to nothing.
But what did that committee actually do ? It placed
Mr. Russell, the Times' correspondent, on a pinnacle,
for it proved every word of his correspondence to be
true—that he had aot overdrawn the abuses which
existed. (11Ear, hear.) Mr. Roebuck's committee was
of the greatest consequence to the Times. But what did
it do in the House of Commons ? Nothing. There was
no response to that report in the house. It caused an
extraordinary feeling throughout the country that ad-
ministrative reform was necessary; so much the com-
mittee did. But then, what is administrative reform ?
Who can tell me ? I never saw the man who could. I
can see no hope of any administrative refoini without a
reform of the House of Commons. ("No, no.") Certain
remarks, I think, were put forward by the Administra-
tive Reform As cciation, that there is in the House of
Commons a set of aristocratic dummies, and that you at
the next election must remove them. Aye, it is all very
well to say you must remove those dummies, but how
can you remove them from the House before you de-
stroy their infisence in the country ? (Cheers.) How are
you to remove the nominees of Peers and of the money
oligarchy from the House of Cownons, when the elec-
toral power of this country, taken as a body—of course
there are exceptions—are dummies of the aristocracy
and moneyocracy ? (Hear.) How is it to be done ? lam
for administrative refcrtn—l go every length the Ad
. .

ministrative Reform Association wishe3 me: But how

is this to be done ? You cannot, remove the aristocratic
dummies from the House of Commons until you
free the electors from their influence. So long
as the aristocracy and landocracy can send 500
or GOO men to vote as they please, without even
taking the trouble of asking them to g va a vote but
through their stewards or underlings, how can you ex-
peat these men to speak thl truth of their own con•
sciences at the polling booth. (Hear, hear.) You can't
do it. It is impossible, so long as the aristocratic influ-
ence remains, that you can do it. You can have neither
army reform nor any other reform, so long as the great
majority of representatives are elected by the aristocracy
and money oligarchy. (Hear, hear.) How soon the
people may please to demand the first step towards re-
form, the leading step to reform, how soon they may
demand the‘ballot—(cheers)—is a question not for me to
resolve. I know this, that were the concentrated essence
of the sense of Daniel Defoe, Evelyn, George Grote, and
Lord Durham in the House of Commons, aristocratically
formed as it is, it would be of no avail until the people
move out of doors. Then what is to move the peop?e
out of doors ? Nothing will move the people to reform
the House of Commons but great disasters. When these
disasters are at their doors, when they find themselves
overcome by taxation, with half representation—(hear,
hear)—then they may move once more, and until then
we who earnest!rand honestly go into the House of
Commons and lift up our voices for this reform will have
to stand and be sneered at; not overcome by argument,
for that I defy, but to be sneered at by the Times, as
men having a crotchet, attempting impossibilities, and
all that sort of thing. To take the Tiineis argument
in this very question, and what was it ? Is was
so weak and so miserable that, as I stated in the
House of Commons, there is no puny whipster of
an editor situated either in a Scotch border or the
top of a Welsh mountain who cannot master the Times
in argument upon this subject. It has been said, gen-
tlemen—and perhaps they think I am a nervous man—
that lamto be put down. No, gentlemen, lam not to
be put down. (Cheers.) lamto be put down by you,
but by no other body in England. (Cheers.) I trust to
bear honestly and boldly the shield which you have in-
trusted to me ; I intend to return that shield to you as
spotless as when you entrusted it to me, and allow me to
say, that I intend to be under it. (Cheers.) Now, gen-
tlemen, as regards other questions with which I have
been more or less concerned. There is that atrocious act

of Parliament called the Corrupt Practices Preventive
Bill. Well, the Times newspaper entered a very clever
protest against it. It stated it to be most miserable, and
I was very happy to see the Taus say so, for nobody
can doubt the power of that paper. I ventured to say
as much in the House of G)lnnions it opposing that act
when the Times, which in 1855 had said that it was a

pompous sham, and meant to be inoperative, in 1356
turned round, lauded the bill, and wondered that Mr.
Berkeley should oppose it. However, Lord Palmerston

considered the bilf.so faulty and its details 20 miserable
that upon my making opposition to it he promised it
should be submitted to a committee this year, and we
have now to see what the committee will do. That
committee will do what every other committee does
—make a report, but when such report gets into that
rotten -House of Commons they will say to it, "We
are not going to be gagged, we will say what we
like to our dependents ; stuff and nonsense, let us go
to the vote." Then they will go into the lobby, and
away goes the report of the committee. We, in our
efforts for reform, have to undergo a good deal of re-
proach, but we look to our consciences and our friends,
we rely upon our constituents, and likewise we look to
the public press, and I thank God that the press of
England is not limited to the Times. Even in this city
we have a press which is able to point out to our con-
stituents that which we really have done. It is very
true that the Liberal party has no party press ; you
may just as well attempt to govern so many mad bulls
as the editors of Liberal papers, and I aui perfectly de-
lighted that it should be so. The Tory party have a
party press which will say anything which tends to the
alvantage of their own particular party. Nuw, gentle-
men, there is one other question in which I confess
myself to be deeply interested, and on which I think I
can congratulate you. It is a question not positively
won, but which I think is within the precincts of vic-
tory, and that is the abolition of church rates. (Cheers.)
Now, ,gentlemen, the Dissenters of this country suffer
under church rates as much as the Roman Catholics do

under the Protest ant in Ireland, and if I sym•
pathise with the Roman Catholics of that country it is
because I hold and believe them to be a trampled upon

- -
race. (Hear, hear.) Church rates have, I believe, re-
ceived their death blow. (Cheers.) I believe there is
throughout the country a feeling sufficiently strong to
overcome the difficulties thrown in the path of Sir Win.
Clay. Mr. Miall has deserved the gratitude of the
public for the course he has puraued upon this question.
(Oneer3.) Church rates are, I believe, doomed and can-

not
n much longer exist. (Cheers.) There is one thing
much in favour of their abolition—that is, there is excite.

sinluin entb
measures whichlhave ever been achieved. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Berkeley then apologised for the length at which he
uerp,ohnntdhtehqaut esistiotnhoeut of
secretdooofrss. neslesosuin do
alniortefen
let it
reform
had trespassed upon their attention,. and expressed the
He thanked them for the confidence they had reposed in
oh
tohpeer
st hoant ht
he
emri
recurrence
rar
egnaci again beof permittedrti
oon me ehent
ntihv ee
narryi d,
him, and which he had endeavoured to enjoy by a con-
scientious discharge of his duties, even when those
duties jarred upon his own feelings. He was particu-
larly lucky in such matters as regards politics, in which
he always felt at home, but he found a great difficulty in
steering clear of the rocks and shoals of religion. As
an Anchorite he bad to express his thanks to Mr. Lang
ton for so kindly and promptly taking the pli.ce of Sir
A. H. Elton, and also his hope that the same success
would attend their next meeting as the present. He
concluded by again thanking his constituents for their
support, and assured them that if it pleased God to allow
him health and strength they would find him not less a
devoted representative than a true and firm Anchorite.
The hen, member resumed his seat amid much applause.

THE TRADE OF LIVERFOOL—LIVERFOOL, IiONDAY.
The Customs Bill of Entry, published this morning,
gives a retarn of the number and tonnage of the ships
that have entered inwards from and cleared outwards for
foreign ports in the week ending the 15th November,
1856, as well as the corresponding week of 1855. It ap•
pears that during the last week 52 ships, of an aggregate
tonnage of 25,979 tons, entered inwards, against 133
ships, 71,082 tons, in 1855, being a decrease of 81. n
in the
number of ships, and a decrease of 45,103 tons: the
the
tonnage ; the number of clearances outwards during
g 84
week, 80 ships, of a tonnage of 52,082 tons,. againstrease o f 4
ships and 52,060 tons in 1855, being
ships, and a decrease of 22 tons. The an
nrttasinl
the
ships reported inwards from foreign ports 3
of
present year, up to the 15th Noverniber,ow as 3,840, with
a tonnage of 2,166,047 tons, against. 3,711, and 1,848,626
i tons in the year 1855, showing an increase of 129 slips,
and 31.7,421 tons,