The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-03 00:00:00

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the Conqueror, vice Capt. Willcox, who has been
superseded at his own request ; Commander P. De
Saumarez to the Dasher, vice Commander Hore,
whose period of service has expired ; John Moody
Smith, promoted to be chief engineer; George J.
Storr to the Nile ; Frederick 0. L. Patch, assist.-
paymaster, to the Nile ; Henry C. T. Medder and
W. H. Martin, clerks, to the Nile; and Thos. For-
der, assist.-clerk, to the Nile.

security. (Renewed cheers.) But is that any rea-
son why we should be blind to the lessons of ex-
perience, or deaf to the admonitions of wisdom,
drawn from the events as they pass before our eyes?
If we have seen that the armoury on which all na-
tions have relied up to the present period has be-
come entirely antiquated—if we have found that
the march of improvement has not been limited to
the arts of peace, but has also extended to the arts
of war, is it necessary for this great country to be
first and foremost in determining that on no sym-
pathy with foreign nations, and on no good under-
standing with them, but on her own right arm and
her own resources, she will at all times depend for
the maintenance of the prosperity with which Pro-
vidence has endoWed her? What, gentlemen, is
the principle on which each of you pays the annual
premium on the insurance of your houses ? Not be-
cause you believe that you will all be burnt out
during the year on which you are entering. You
have no expectation or apprehension of that
sort. Thit this you say —" I will not live that
slavish life of continual anxiety. I will have
calm assurance, I will have tranquil enjoyment :
I will be master of myself and of my posses-
sions by placing myself superior to the risks of fate '
and fortune." That is your principle in private life:
So, too, it is the true principle for this great empire
to rest on her own resources, and to own no patron
but herself. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, when I was a
boy an American gentleman came over to this coun- •
try who had invented a steam gun. He thought
he had discovered a machine by which he could
discharge so many bullets in a minute that he could
destroy a whole regiment almost the very moment
it made its appearance on the field., The invention,
however, failed. But the name that its author gave
it was the "pacificator," his reason for doint, so
being, as he said, that the possession of so formidablet'
a weapon would render war for the future wholly
impossible. (A laugh.) Let us apply that reason-
ing to our national preparations. When we are •
undefended there may be a temptation to assail us.
But when England has once assumed her panoply
—when her army, her navy, and her other defences
are in the state in which, by the exertions of the
country and the wisdom of Parliament, they will
speedily be placed—peace becomes a matter almost
of necessity. (Cheers.) It is scarcely possible that
our security should ever be put in hazard for a tno-
.,inent. No doubt, as you have been told, the people
`of the United Kingdom have been contributing-. a
--large amount of income-tax, especially in the present
half-year. My bon- colleauge, sanguine man, anti-
cipates that the day will soon come when the
Government will be able entirely to remove that
impost.
Mr. LANGSTON—No, I beg your pardon: I said
I feared I should never live to see it removed. (A
laugh.)
Mr. CARDW ELL—Then my hon. colleague and
I share the same anticipation. (Laughter.)
What, however,..l wished to say in paising
was this—that the impost you are now paying
is a double impost, being a whole year's extra
income-tax levied in a single half-year in order
to defray the whole expense of your preparations.
I hope that in future every year and every half-
year will bear its own bm:dens, and that no half-
year will, like the present one, have to bear the
charge of the entire year. When, however, you
cordially and cheerfully submit to the taxation ne-
cessary to place the defences of the country in the
state which they are now rapidly assuming you do
it, not from distrust, timidity, or panic; you are
not goaded by any guilty ambition—yoii -desire to
put your institutions and your national blessings
in that position of independent safety to which.
every sull1;:ct of Queen Victoria is entitled—
" To guard what art and industry have won,
For Freedom clams him for her first-born son."
(Cheers.) Gentlemen, since I was last among you
I have spent the whole of my time in administer-
ing the Government of certainly not the least in-
teresting portion of her Majesty's dominions. And
I am anxious to state to you in a few words the
feelings with which I again visited the sister
island. I found, in the first place, that her com-
munications are multiplied, that she is traversed by
railways in general superior to ours, uniting the
products of the soil with the markets of commerce,
and tending to promote objects of the utmost social
as well as material advantage. I found her agri-
cultural 'prosperity quickened, her commercial
energy animated and excited, her crime diminished;
her poor rates—lately so heavy—falling to the
lowest amount ; I found, above all, a universal
thirst for education, and the means of gratifying
it calculated to raise the character of her people,
and to elevate the whole tone, both of the country
and its Government. I shall not conceal from you,
gentlemen, there are difficulties connected with the
Government of Ireland of a nature wholly different
from those with which you are acquainted; but I
would venture in addressing this large assemblage'
of Englishmen to suggest that the golden rule by
which we govern ourselves in private life is worthy
of application to great affairs of public and political
concern—that we should not only do to others as
we wish others to do to us, but that in forming our
judgments of others and their affairs we should en-
deavour to place out elves in their position and
strive to get if possible at the point of view from
which they naturally look at those affairs. It is by
cultivating such sentiments on this side of the water
towards Ireland that we shall best encourage in her
people the habit which successive Governments, of
whatever party, have labourod, not without success,
to encourage among them—viz., that of regarding
all Imperial questions in the light in which we our-
selves regard them; and then by the joint action
of the two nations we should become one united -
people, the strength of the British Government, and
the support of its honour. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, in
the course of the year which has just dawned upon
us we shall have to deal with the great question of
reform. I know you think that, in approaching that
subject, we shall have to navigate a dangerous
channel, that we shall have -to thread our way
among many shoals and sunken rocks. But we
shall at least have this advantage, that the Channel
has been sounded by the mariners who have pre-
ceded us. Some of its bearings are already known
to us, and the rock on which a previous navigator
foundered will not be that on which his successors
will split. I believe, therefore, that we approach
the subject with great advantages. I believe there
is in the country, irrespective of party, a sincere and
general desire that this question
.should now be sa-
tisfactorily set at rest. As my hon. colleague has
told you, all parties in the State are now pledged
to the proposition that there shall be some reform
of our representative system—that there shall be
some transfer of power and some extension of the
franchise. (Cheers.) No doubt in the particular propo-
sals that we shall make we may meet with difficulties
and may be involved in conflicts. But this I hope,
that if the measure be in itself a fair, a wise, and
righteous measure, it will receive such an amount of
public support as was certainly not accorded to
such a project in the days of the agitation on the
first Reform Bill, when this question was the occa-
sion of much more party strife and general excite-
ment than it is likely to produce in the compara-
tively temperate times in which we have the hap-
piness to live. (Cheers.) I cannot therefore but
trust that the year- on which we are entering will
see a measure of reform satisfactory to you and to
the public at large, not only introduced but carried
—a measure calculated to widen the basis and
strengthen the fabric of our institutions, and to ren-
der permanent the settlement which it will be the
medium of effecting. (Cheers.) My hon. friend has
reminded you of the disclosures which have recently,
been made in certain constituencies, and has ex-
pressed a hope that we shall be able entirely to pre-
vent corruption. Now, if I were to put on the cap
of Fortunatus and to indulge in wishes, I know of
no man who would entertain that desire more fer-
vently and sincerely than myself. lam quite sure
that any measure which cari be suggested, either by
ourselves or byothers likelyto secure that desirable
result we shall be most happy to forward. (A Voice
—" The Ballot.") But, after all, gentlemen, I am
afraid there will inevitably cling so much of human
imperfections to institutions of our times that pro-
bably some leaven of corruption will survive the
most effectual of our refOrras. My hon. friend says
he does not expect to see the termination of the in-
come-tax. I fear he must also be content to survive
even although perfect purity shall not, by the pre-
sent or indeed, by any succeeding GOvonment, be
introduced into all popular elections. (A laugh.)
Gentlemen, we have undertaken to reform Par-
liament, and I trust We shall succeed in our
task. We shall also undertake to reform human
nature as soon as we see our way
av
to its practical
accomplishment. (Laughter.) But lam erse to
making promises to you unless there is some pros-
pect of their immediate or, at least, of their speedy
fulfilment. (Cheers.) The right hon. gentleman
concludt d by thanking the electors of Oxford for
the uniform kindness and consideration he had ex-
perienced at their hands, and by wishing cash and
all.of them every happiness in the year which had
just opened.
The remaining toasts were of a purely local
character.

IMMIGRATION TO VICTORIA.—The Government
Immigration Agent in Victoria, in his annual report to the
Colonial Government, says that a very urgent and increas-
ing demand exists throughout the colony for single female
•
servants, and employment could readily be found for at least
300 monthly. Tho following are the current rates of
wages: —Cooks and laundresses, £3O to per annum;
housemaids, £25 to £3O; general servants, £25 to £3O;
nurzemaids, £2O to £25; but really skilled and tried ser-
vants readily obtain much higher wages. The class most
in requisition are good farm men servants, who can make
themselves generally useful, and female domestic servants
of every description. The latter must be an increasing re- •
quiroment, from the fact of so many who yearly marry and
become themselves employers.