The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-08 00:00:00

THE

BELFAST.
THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL.
BELFAST, FRIDAY.
• According to previous notification the election o 7
a representative in Parliament for the borough of I
Belfast, consequent upon the acceptance of office by
• Mr. Cairn, her Majesty's Solicitor-General for Eng-
. land, took place to-day in the Court-house, How- I
ard-street, at 10 o'clock. A little before that hour
the court was crowded with the most respectable
electors of the town, and on the hustings were a
large number of the gentlemen of Belfast. Shortly
after the opening of the court Mr. Hugh M'Cal-
enont Cairns, Solicitor-General for England, ex-
,
,companied by several of his friends, entered the
. court, and proceeded to the hustings amid the
• applause of all present.
At 10 o'clock Mr. Samuel Gibson Getty, Mayor
of Belfast, and returning officer for the borough,
opened the proceedings by reading her Majesty's
writ, after which he called upon any elector present
- who had a gentleman to propose to come forward
and do so.
Mr. J. CLARKE, justice of the peace, then came
•
forward and was received with loud applause. He
• felt great
pleasure in proposing Mr. Hugh M'Cal-
mont Cairns, as a fit and proper person to represent
- the borough of Belfast in the British Parliament.
(Applause.)
Mr. J. HEADMAN begged to second the nomina-
.
• tiou of Mr. Cairns, and had great
pleasure in
doing so.
The MAYOR then asked if any other elector had
a candidate to propose, and was answered by loud
cries of " No, no 1" whereupon he declared Hugh
M'Calmont Cairne duly elected to represent the
borough of Belfast in Parliament, which declaration
was received with repeated cheers.
Mr. CAIRNS, Solicitor-General, then came for-
_. ward, and was received with loud applause. He
arose to address them on that occasion under cir-
cumstances somewhat novel to him—novel because
of the reason which made the proceeding necessary,
and novel because of the absence of that opposition
which he had formerly experienced. The scene on
the present occasion was less exciting than at pre-
, vious elections, but it was much more agreeable.
- (Laughter.) His mind travelled back for a period
of six years, when he had the honour of being
first returned for Belfast, and six years was
no small slice out of the life of a public
man. During that time he might have taken views
on many questions quite different from those of
many of his constituents, yet he never heard an
unkind word from one of them, cr an unkind ex-
pression from a political opponent. (Hear, hear.)
_ He had, on the contrary, experienced kindness from
them even beyond what that service deserved. He
then passed on to notice the circumstances which
bad brought about that election, the particulars of
which, no doubt, they were all aware of through
the public journals. They were aware generally of
the circumstances which led to a change of Ministry;
. , but he would briefly refer to them. (Hear, hear.)
_ There was nothing more to be desired than that
friendly relations should exist between England and
France. When they considered the close proximity
of the two countries to each other, they would see
the importance of their being on friendly terms witn
each other. (Hear.) An attack was recently made
• on the life of the Emperor of the French, and of
course the French people felt indignant at it. It
was found that the assassins had lived some time in
• England, andthey were ready to condemn England.
for giving an asylum to such men, although no-
thing was known in this country of their intentions.
Re did not attach much weight to some expressions
which emanated from French colonels ; and, indeed,
these kingdoms should be the last to object to this,
for we claimed liberty of speech and liberty of the
press for ourselves. (Hear, hear.) But a demand
was made on the part of the French Government
that the law of this country with regard to
refugees should be changed, and it was impossible
to mistake what the French Government wanted—
they required a limit to be put to the security
of refugees in these kingdoms ; but if there was one
thing an Englishman held more firmly than another
it was our right to give security to political re-
fugees. But the law relating to conspiracy to
_ murder required a change to be made in it, and
the House of Commons, by a large majority, voted
for the bringing in of a bill on the question. But
if the matter had rested there, there would have
been no change of Government, he believed ; but
it did not. A letter from the French Government
was laid on the table of the House of Commons.
_ When he called it a letter they should remember
that a letter from one government to another was a
document which should be carefully examined, and
replied to if necessary ; and it should be seen that
_ it contained nothing offensive. Well, no doubt
they bad all seen the letter to which he alluded,
as it was published in the newspapers ' • therefore,
he was not going to go over it all ; but he would
point out three statements made in it. The first
thing alleged was that the Government of England
harboured assassins. Now, it was well known
that no country hated assassination more than this
(applause); and if assassins resided here it was
without the knowledge of the Government. An-
.
, other statement, made was that in England assas-
sination
was preached openly. That was also in-
, correct. (Hear, hear.) England abhorred assas-
sination, and did not preach it—(applause)---either
openly or otherwise. The third statement made
was that the English Legislature contributed to
•• forward the designs of the assassins. The House
of Commons considered that these charges
should have been answered by our Govern-
.- merit, and accordingly Lord Palmerston was
asked if any reply had been sent to the French.
Government • and the Prime Minister of Eng-
land replied to the question put to him that no reply
, had been sent to the French Government, and both
Lord Palmerston and Lord Clarendon said it
• could not be answered. That was considered a
strange statement coming from a man who was
always believed to hold it to be his first duty to
natkintain the honour of England unsullied. A
resolution was then moved in the House of Com-
mons, and carried by a majority of 19, but he be-
lieved there wore not 50 members in the House
that night who did not consider the resolution a fair
one that ought to have been passed, and would
have voted for it but for influence brought to bear
upon them. The result of the passing of that reso•
lution was that Lord Palmerstou retired from, and
Lord Derby accepted, office. (Applause.) It was
_ true Lord Derby's government was a Conservative
government. (Great applause.) And what was a
. Conservative policy ? Some newspapers cried it up
as something opposed to improvement, and said it
was rather for retrograding ; but it did not mean
that. (Hear.) We were progressing in arts, in
manufactures, in science, &c., and he held that Go- I
vernments had a right also to progress and go on
improving. The Government had a right to keep
pace with the times, and to bring in measures which
• might be required and found necessary.He would
n.
ask them to look at the ,mes of those
government in the House of Commons.
in
T ehree new w
Lord Stanley, Sir John Pakington, Mr. Walpole,2s
Mr. Henley, Sir F. Thesiger, now Lord Chelms-
ford, and he would ask, were not these the very
men who were the supporters and originators of
every scheme for improvement in the House of
Commons ? (Applause.) He then noticed the share
Belfast had in the new appointments ; the Lord
Chancellor for Ireland, as Mr. Clarke had
said, was Joseph Napier, a Belfast man (applause) ;
and then, if it could not be said that the
Attorney-General, Mr. Whiteside, was entirely
• a Belfast man, it could at least be said that his
better half was--(loud laughter)—and then he had
himself the honour of being the Solicitor-General
or England. (Cheers.) Mr. Cairns then proceeded
to notice what might lle the measures which the
new Government would propose. The ques iou of
• IThegeialuatteion for India would require their attention.
with the Ministry had brought in a bill to do away
tary of State' e
India Company, and appoint a Seer( -
secretary with a council of eight, which the
- objected to eseucfh was to choose. (Laughter.) He
pat
aro
measure as this, tor it would
place too much
in the hands of one man,
- which no Minister sh ° ticl be allowed. (Hear, bear.)
He considered it would be well to take time and learn
the cause of the mutiny,
and then bring in a bill on
the matter. He next
law and the bankingsystem
to the bankruptcy
e as requiring legislation,
and then referred to a Reform Bill. He did not
think they should have Parliamentary reform too
often; bnt he would bo in favour of it when the ad- J
4 Vaal
.f3'nellt of the
‘., country in education and wealth
• cee-Ted to .(pplause.) Mr. Cairns then pro
1:1..9.tice the system
lattetly of government pursued
political party or
faetion huituitrelxoad, by which
-would opp,:ll:avnurs lavis(tVde upon them. He
patronaee and I:ratt,Ylvagaettwima all Government
_uppott
under a Government
to any one party ; nuwthltt.wonta
hadve a Eajelsfedut iePr
pP office_
rt
that
aallrarasistake for
sued in Ireland lately. It'le;rae:ur"'
any government to think of rulinagglreelt
- fashion. There should b© no backstairs
' at the Castle. He then referred to the late
"aulroree
Chancellor's letter to Lord Londonderry, and desi:-
- nated it as an insult to the magistracy of every
shade of politics. (A cry having been given of
"Groans for Brady" was heartily responded to.) Mr.
- Cairns then declared his policy to be a strong de-
termination to maintain the Protestantism of the
country, which gave liberty to England such as
. was not possessed in any other country in Europe;
and after thanking the electors for the honour con.