The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-18 00:00:00

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gadies, the
council having wisely resolved that the ladies, who
had rendered such important aid in the compara-
tively
.dry work of the sections,. were entitled to
share in the more agreeable business of the closing
festivity ; and their reselence, dressed. in every
'variety of female fashiopnasbneh costume,im which the
conspicuous—the roshesse,wattheerede
florid 'head-dress now in
afentnetttheen. era favour was
rounda ndlady-grass
the
faifair
browsvhie in
camelias,
wreaths
ntaetbhle, harmonis-
ing prettily and gracefully with
ments of the prandial board. The spacious
sgal-
leries, which had been thrown open tosepthaeemi public,
on payment of an admission fee of half-a-crown
beingrown
each person, were crowded, the occupantsa-e
principally of the fair sex. There was a brass band,
the musicians being amateurs--the wo:Im '
candle factory, who had volunteered their en
in
a
—which played appropriate airs in
the
intervals
erva s
between the speeches ; and a party of glee singers,
who alternated with the band the musical duties.
Lord Brougham was in the chair, supported by
Lord J. Russell, the Earl of Carlisle,
the Earl of
Shaftesbury, Lord Sandon, Mr. Monckton
M.P., Mr. W. Brown, M.P., the Bishop of es'
Penn-
sylvania, Sir Ha _Varney, M.P., Mr. Hanburyyyrn ,
M.P., Mr. James Heywood, Mr. Alderman J.
Turner, Mr. Christopher Bushell, Mr. W.
M.P., Sir James Stephen, Mr. T. B. Horsfall, ALP.,
Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, Mr. C. Turner, the Rev.
Archdeacon Jones, Mr. G. AV. Hastings, Mr. Edw.
Heath, Mr. Hadfield, M.P., Mr, Cowan, M.P., Mr.
Wood, M.P., Mr. Akroyd, M.P., and the chief
members of the Town Council, Dock Board, and
other local bodies.
The usual loyal toasts were given and enthusias-
tically honoured.
In proposing the House of Lords, Lord BROUGHAM
said—When I look around this great hall, a sight
presents itself I believe wholly unexampled in this
country. (Hear, hear.) A sight so magnificent in
every respect to the outward eye, and to the inward
contemplation, it never certainly has been my for-
tune to see. And yet, forgive me if I add, contrary
to the maxim, that " comparisons are odious," and
that other maxim, that " the absent are generally
in the wrong," forgive me if I add that all I see here
around me, great though the impression is, deep as
that impression is and striking as the view present-
ing itself physically and morally is, it is nothing
equal to the sight I saw last night at the amphi-
theatre in this your town. For, surrounded as lam
by dignity and respectability that command obser-
vation, by a constellation of beauty that wins ad-
miration, I confess that I still feel nothing equal to
that feeling with which the sight of last night in-
spired me. (Hear, hear.) There we assembledunder
the same roof from 4,000 to 5,000 of the working
men of Liverpool—the very sinews of the strength
of the community—that part of the community
without which an the rest would not only be as
nothing, but I ma say, literally speaking, must
cease to exist. (Hear.) And any set of men on
the one hand more zealous for the good work in
which they and we are all now engaged, but on the
other hand more rational, more temperate, more
decorous in their demeanour, I never saw
in any
place, be it a court, or be it a senate, in which it
has been my lot to be. And it was not for the want
of capacity to debate, for we were addressed by
two persons, one of them a - working man, and
the other an employer of working men, and- by
the working man in as good a speech as I ever
heard. (Hear, hear.) I find that those men who
are deeply impressed with the great importance
of this movement, feel that it is for the benefit
of all classes---their• own included—(hear, hear)
—and I have had a communication an hour before
I came here which "shows their determination to
help us on to the best of their ability in carrying
into effect our great plans of public improvement.
I have a letter from a young man who says that he
signs his name without any coat of arms. There
was an illusion last night to armorial bearings, and
-he said, "My quarterings are neither griffins nor
lions, but a jack-plane, an axe, and a saw '—(hear,
hear)—and he proposes as a communication be-
tween his body of working men and our body of
the National Association, that there should be a
committee of working men, a social science com-
mittee of working men, to communicate with the
general committee of our Social Science Associa-
tion. Most entirely am lof his opinion. The best
answer I can give is to say that we entirely accept
his proposal, and hope and trust, even before we
leave Liverpool,_ they will have formed a Social
Science Committee of Working Men to co-operate
with ours. - Now, one word as to the general suc-
cess of this association. I find that last year, at
Birmingham, the number of admittances into our
association at the end of the meeting did not quite
amount to 800 ; here they amounted to 1,200 on
Monday morning, before we began, and they are
now 2,000. This is a proof of progress. (Hear,
hear.) I, however, greatly grieve to find—an in-
timation having been given at the close of the last
year's meeting that any institute in this country,
either as mechanics' institute, or 'prentic library,
or any other such institute in the country, that de-
sired to be an incorporate member
of this associa-
tion, might do so, upon the same payment as any
ordinary individual—that, either from inadver-
tence, or from not understanding the drift of the
proposal, hardly any of those bodies in the country
have come to join us. From the letter I have
just referred, I hope that that apathy and indiffer-
ence exist no longer. Upon the subject of the toast
the noble learned lord said—The House of Lords is
of the most essential service in the mixed con-
stitution of this country, and to dispense with it
would be to alter the constitution. (Cheers.)
There may be some who think that we should
be better without a House of Lords • and in their
view, upon the principles followed in Other countries,
they may be able to strike out a new form of con-
stitution, with only one chamber_a House of Com-
mons, without an hereditary chamber. That may
be a very good constitution and well adapted for
some countries ; but it would not be the constitu-
tion of England under which we have so long lived
and flourished, and we should have reason to regret
the day when so fatal a change in our constitution
was made.. Ours is a mixed monarchy. We have a
Crown, not elective, but hereditary. And why ?
To avoid the greatest of all curses—eternal civil
war every-time there is a vacancy in the Crown.
(Hear.) Set against this monarchy, objecti
andonin this
s that
can be made to hereditary-
one great and precious andinviolable security, that
hereditary rule prevents disputed succession, which
means civil war, you have a complete answer and
defence. But people may say, why should we have
an hereditary aristocracy Does it follow that be-
cause they succeed to others by birth they are en-
dowed with the same qualities their founders had
But that is the case in every branch of the commu-
nity. Take the example of property. Does it follow
that when a man succeeds to the property of his
father, whether in land or in trade acquired, or in
any other way, does it follow that he has the qua-
lities which his father had, and which enabled him
to g, am
that property ? Yet nobody denies that the
right of property ought to give a man the power of
disposing of it, and that if he makes no will the
law ought to dispose of it for him. (Hear.) But the
use of a hereditary peerage is manifest, and is
Most material. If you only had two chambers—the
House of Commons elected by one qualification,
and the House of Lords elected upon some other
qualification, it would only be that the bills that
raised through the-- House of Commons, through
their various stages, then would have
o to
through so many more stages of what passwould
really be another branch of the House f Com-
Com-
mons ; and there would be no possibility of better
inquiry, -of greater deliberation, of greater security
against error, than there would be
in adding
two or three stages in the House of Commons.
The true course is that which
our constitution
takes, to have all that come
a body,
from the House of
Commons scrutinised by the House of
Lords, which owes its I
ace and authority to'
totally different principle from the principlee of
election, and thus you have
and blunders in the lower a h
eusseec.urit against
have
seenrrionr
Istances in which such frightful errors might have
been committed by the House of Lords, if they had
merely as a matter of course adopted what the
House of Commons sent up—such frightful errors as
would, if anything could have done it, put an end
to the House of Commons and not of
the Lords.
(Hear.) These errors rarely are committed; but
that they rarely are committed, and are never fatal,
is owing to there being two chambers appointed
their upon a different qualification and owing au-
thority to different sources of appointment.
i am
sure that I need hardly, add that, although the
with House of Lords has occasionally differed h
the
rest of the country upon one yor two very remark-
able occasions—one while Bill am• •
Crown, upon the Reform— et mister of the
Lords invariably came in, soonerY the House of
general opinion of their fll •• or later, to the
e ow-citizen • s with cer-
tain modifications and exceptions,
the whole, very likely the' and that, upon
benefit rather than an in. their holding out was a
injury. Thus, even when
there appeared differences
cileable, the House of which seemed irrecon-
Lords proved its usefulness.
It is still less necessary
for me to say that. the House
of Commons is necessary to the constitution became
the constitution
without the House of Commons
would be ve like _ ~ • h
the play of " Hamlet with the
part of Hamlet omitted.. (Laughter.)
' The Earl of
CARLISLE returned thanks ; and Mr.
M. Milnes, ackno-wledged the • next toast,
Viz the House of Commons; _
Lord J. -RussETA; 'gave " The • Health of Lord
Brougham," which 'was drUnk with honours ; and