The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-14 00:00:00

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11 alit

HER MAJETY.

BALMORAL, Fria:ly.
The Queen drove out in the morning with Prin-
cess Christian, and again
.in the afternoon, seem-
pauied by Princess Beatrice, and attended by the
Marchioness of Ely.

SAT IJIMA T.
The Queen drove to Alt-na-Guithasach wit!
Priucess Christian, attended by the Marchioness o
Ely.

Prince Christian went out for a drive of deer in
Colonel Farquharson's woods at Invercauld.

Prince Leopold, accompanied by Mr. Duckworth,
went to Glen Ey.
Sir Stafford Northcote has left Balmoral.
The accounts received of Prince Arthur are most
favourable ; the fever has entirely subsided.

MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN, M.P., ON
PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

Mr. Hugessen, M.P. for the united boroughs of
Sandwich, Deal, and WTalmer, on Friday night ad-
dressed his constituents at considerable length on
the various public topics of the day. II e commenced
by referring to the great question of reform, which
bad occupied so much of the attention of Parliament
during the last session. He saw a great disposition
on the part of the organs of the present Govern-
ment to claim to themselves a great deal of merit
for passing the Reform Bill, and for the consistency
with which they had advocated the cause of Reform,
and he would therefore place before his audience
a simple view of this question. No candid
man could deny that after the settlement
of the question in 1832 the Tory party con-
tinued their opposition to any further reduction of
the franchise, and Mr. Disraeli, in 1865, in his
manifesto to the electors of Buckinghamshire, said
that the bill of Lord Derby had been defeated, on
the ground that no extension of the suffrage would
be sufficient which did not involve a lowering of the
franchise in boroughs. In that state of things Lord
Derby advised an appeal to the country, and, Rot
having obtained a majority, resigned office, and an
administration was formed pledged to a lowering
of the borough franchise. During the last six years
the efforts of the Tory party had been neither insig-
nificant nor fruitless. The only principle on which
they had proposed to extend the borough franchise
was that of fancy qualifications, which they
threw over this year without even a debate.
Lord Derby declared that he would no longer
remain as a more stop-gap, and preferred taking
a leap in the dark. (Laughter.) Lord Russell's
Government had resigned because they could not
carry a Reform Bill in accordance with the prin-
ciples which they professed. Lord Derby's Go-
vernment retained office by consenting to a Reform
Bill at variance with all their former principles.
(Hear, hear.) When ho saw the present Govern-
ment making a claim to a character for consistency,
it only proved the truth of the old saying that men
were most desirous of having attributed to them the
virtues of which they were most deficient. It was
then owing to the efforts of the Liberal party that
the country had at last obtained a Reform Bill, and
it was their efforts that had rendered it much more
liberal than it would otherwise have been.
(Cheers.) The chief credit to which the Conser-
vatives were entitled was their not having allowed
any predilections for old opinions to stand
in the way of attempting to settle the question of
Reform. (Cheers.) He contended that having
obtained office in the manner they had done, by the
profession of certain principles, their conduct in
carrying a Reform Bill had struck a blow at the

confidence which the English people reposed in the
political morality of their public men, which was
fraught with most serious evil. (Cheers.) But
still there was a general feeling among the Liberal
party to condone the offence on account of the mag-
nitude of the boon which had been conferred upon
the country. (Hear, hear.) So far as he was
concerned, he would rather have gone by more
gradual ways to that household suffrage to which
he had always looked as a resting-place, and be
much regretted that the personal payment of rates
had been mixed up with the measure. (Hear,
hear.) He believed the Small Tenements Act to
be of great practical utility, and that their abroga-
tion would cause much annoyance and inconvenience.
He regretted that the basis on which the franchise
had been settled rendered a speedy renewal of agita-
tion absolutely inevitable. The Government had
made it their boast that they had done better than
the Whigs, by settling the question on the broad
principle of the personal payment of rates ; but he
did not see how, with that settlement in boroughs,
a £l2 rating limit could be maintained in counties.
The vacillating conduct of the Government through-
out had shown that they were made of very squeez-
able materials—they had encouraged the agitation
which they deprecated, and only whetted the in-
satiable appetite of the democracy. When Mr.
Gladstone was defeated in April, he declared
that he would not initiate any more vital
amendments to the bill, and there was
a tacit understanding among those who sat with
him on the front opposition bench that they would
follow his example to avoid the appearance of any
factious opposition, and thus it happened that some
amendments, which would have come better from
Mr. Gladstone or his colleagues, fell into other hands.
An amendment disfranchising all boroughs with a
population under 5,000 was rejected, and but for
that rejection, and had the door been opened, he (Mr.
Hugessen) would have proposed a larger scheme,
dealing with 90 or 100 seats, by taking away a member
from every borough with a population below 12,000,
and disfranchising all boroughs with a population of
less than 7,000. The scheme he then shadowed forth
was now entirely endorsed by the leaders of the
Liberal party, who acknowledged it as one of the
main objects for which the Liberal party would now
almost immediately have to strive. (Cheers.) Turn-
ing next to the representation of minorities, he con-
sidered that that was by no means a party question,
though it was, generally speaking, imperfectly
understood. He supported the proposal, because,
in a constituency of 100,000 having a third mem-
ber given to it on account of its importance, and
where there might be 60,000 of one party and 40,000
of another, it was obviously unfair to allow the
60,000 to return all the members, as in that case
the existence of the 40,000 would only be made to
tell against themselves, and to add to the political
importance of their opponents. It was said minori-
ties were already represented in the small boroughs,
but that argument ceded the principle that mino-
rities ought to be represented somewhere, and if
that were so it was surely better to represent them
directly than indirectly. Mr. Bright had accused
those who supported the scheme of desiring to aim
a blow at the power of the large towns, but that was
absurd, inasmuch as the great majority of the con-
stituencies affected would be county, and not borough
constituencies. Mr. Bright recommended them not
to deviate from the old lines of the constitution ; but
would Mr. Bright say the same with regard to the
laws of primogeniture, church rates, the privileges
of the peers, and all questions affecting land ? If he
were to oppose Mr. Bright on that ground, the hon.
gentleman would tell him that he was showing a
foolish and servile deference to an obsolete tradition.
Such an argument, appealing only to prejudice and
ignorance, was not worthy of Mr. Bright's high
position, and he protested against the manner in
which the hon. gentleman and his school of politi-
cians treated matters of this kind. Directly any
one differed from them lie was branded as a Tory
and a heretic. This style of rebuke was an impor-
tation from a Transatlantic democracy, and he (Mr.
Hugessen) as an English gentleman war; not pre-
pared to submit to it. He admitted the obligations
of party, and was ready and anxious to agree with
Mr. Gladstone on most questions, but he would
never pledge himself implicitly to follow anyindi-
vidual. (Cheers.) With regard to the futiure, he
looked with perfect confidence upon it, feeling satis-
fied that the good sense of the English people would
keep the yeml of the State geed order. Ile

had always been in favour of a large extension of
the franchise, and did not regret what had passed,
if it did not exercise a baneful influence on the
political future. Questions of immense importance
must soon come under discussion. Let them bring
to the discussion of these questions the spirit of
generous and mutual forbearance. Having referred
to the important question of education, and to the
relative position of capital and labour, the hon.
member said that the relations between church
and state must be revised before long. The Church
of England should be kept free from ecclesiastical
arrogance and senseless innovation. The establish-
ment in Ireland, however, was an insult to the
religion of the majority of the country, an injury
to Protestantism, and a source of weaktiess to Eng-
land ; but, in dealing with it as it must soon be
dealt with, he was strongly opposel to the endow-
ment of any religious body. (Cheers.)
The proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks
to Mr. Ilugessen.