The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-27 00:00:00

Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Goldwin Smith.

At the conclusion of a lecture on " John Pym
and the Long Parlimllent," delivered at Guildford
on Monday evening, Mr. Croldwin Smith thus re-
ferred to Mr. Disraeli's recent attack upon him.
" And now one word in self-defence. Mr. Disraeli

in the last Reform debate fell foul of me.

right hon. gentlernanin that debate showed by his
attack upon me that-he still retained the power of
calling names. He showed by the miscellaneous
epithets in which he indulged that he had not ex-
hausted the vocabulary which he exerted on Sir
Robert Peel. The right hon. gentleman in that
debate said that I had passed my life 'in a cloister.'

This was on assertion uttered, like many of
Mr. Disraeli's, at a venture, and, like most
of his random assertions, simply untrue. He
then told the house that 'I maligned all things
and all men.' I beg to say that I honour all

things and all men
.worthy of honour. I cannot
honour that which is false and base, and standing, as
Mr. Disraeli stood, where English power and great-
ness once stood, I notice one point of difference be-
tween him and those illustrious men. In the time
of Hampden the leaders of the Commons were re-
markable for their control over temper, and they
neverforgot themselves to indulge in silly personali-
ties against people out of doors. I now come to
the matter of the freeholders in Buckinghamshire.
Rushworth says that ~in 1641 divers knights,
squires, and other freeholders of Buckinghamshire,
to the number of 4,000: marched to London, each
man with a .copy a- the protestation in his
hat ;' but I am told that if there were 4,000
freeholders then, so there are now. Well, I
find on the electoral roll of Buckingham-
shire 4,500 freeholders. But are these free-
holders independent yeomen cultivating their own
laud? No. Investigation shows that these free-
holders are composed of men holding freehold
houses, cottages, and small pieces of land. Take
any place within the parliamentary limits of the
county, and this statement would be borne out. I
will instance Chalfont, a place of some historic note,
and celebrated as the refuge of Mr. Disraeli's great
rival in epic poetry, John Milton, when he was flee-
ing from the Tory mercies of the Restoration party.
I find that in this place there are 11 occupiers of
£5O value, 30 freeholders, one- squire, one rector,
and that the freeholders are holders of houses, cot-
tages, and small pieces of land ; out of them 18
are not resident—rather small change, I think, for
the Irousides. I know but little of the county of
Bucks, but it is notorious that, except in the very
north of England the yeomanry have almost ceased
to exist. The estates of the small gentry have been
bought up by the large proprietors. This is a great
evil, as it makes the nation but tenants at will of its
own soil. It is a sad fact that we are merging to
au aggregation of the land into the hands of a few
commercial and manufacturing n.illionaires. The
laws of primogeniture and entail aggravate the evil.
It is true that in the county of Bucks, owing to the
exceptional circumstance of the Duke of Bucking-
ham's estate being taken out of entail, there has been
an addition of 500 freeholders to the electoral roll.
I am willing to admit that these 500 are good
change for a duke. It is said these laws are neces-
sary to keep estates together, but let good sense and
frugality keep these together, not unjust laws. His-
tory proves that in proportion to the diminution of
the yeomanry and the increase of the great pro-
prietors, so have the constituent elements of our
'louse of Commons diminished in strength and
vigour."

CrOOD NEWS FOR THE CITY.—A turtle weighing
over 2 cwt. was captured off the Lizard on Friday by s.
Penzance fiebing boat.