The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-30 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 30, 1858.

MR. BERBSFORD 'TOPE, M,P., AND HIS
CONSTITUENTS.

MAIDSTONE, SATURDAY.
A great Conservative fete was held yesterday, at Mote-
park, in this eeighbeurfiood, which had been thrown open
to the townspeople of Maidstone by the Earl of Romney.
An enormous marquee had been erected, in which the
dinner was to take place, and about 3 o'clock Mr. Beret-
ford Hope and Major Scott, the members for the borough,
made their appearance on the ground, escorted by
their principal supporters, and followed by processions formed
of the Conservatives of each- of the wars in Maidstone.
Banners and flags were displayed in great profusion, and no
less than seven bands accompanied the procession.
At the dinner—which was presided over by Edwin Stacy,
Esq.—upwards of 1,400 persons were present. Both the
members were received with great cheering.
Mr. BERESronn HOPE, in the course of hie speech, thus
remarked on the events of the last session :—When the dis-
solution of Parliament took place some fifteen months ago,
when Lord Palmerston was in the ascendant, when Conser-
vatives even came forward and said, " We support Lord Pal-
merston. Lord Palmerston is the man for us," what did we
see ? Thatiminister who, rightly or wrongly, at the com-
mencement of the year 1855, was supposed to be the only
pilot who could weather the storm, that man who was sup-
posed to have brought back again to earth the wonderful
power by which Walpole and Pitt ruled the destinies of the
country with a rod of iron—that minister has fallen snore
thoroughly, more completely, more hopelessly than any
statesman who within the memory of man has been called
upon to administer the affairs of the country. I need not
relate the history of the change of public opinion which
astonished so many people, but which did not astonish me,
fur I had even at the time of the greatest enthusiasm in his
favour taken a measure of the ministry, which has since
proved more accurate than would have been-believed possible-
had I then mentioned it; that last appointment to a place in
the ministry ore person whose name I will not mention, but
who concentrated on his own person the indignation of all
honest and moral men of every shade of political opinion,
was almost the last drop irtbe imp which was ro soon to
ovstilows And what was the reason of the final overthrow ?
It was the upraised voice of free and glorious England ex-
claiming, " We will that England shall be free. We will
that England shall be the refuge of the unfortunate. We
will that England shall be the sacred shrine of liberty is the
western sea. (Cheers.) We will not abandon that glorious
prerogative at the voice of oily foreign sovereign or poten-
tate." (Renewed cheers.) Gentlemen, of the many votes
that I gave in the last session of Parliament there is none of
which I am more proud, none which I more rejoice to own
before you than the one which I gave on the first division on
the Conspiracy to Murder Bill. There were, as you will
probably recollect, two divisions upon that bill, and on the
second '299 members went down to the house, and hurled the
Palmerston Government from power. (Cheers.) But three
weeks before, there was another division, when a small body
of 99 walked into the lobby to protest against the introduc-
tion of that bill. Now I might have been satisfied if I had
only been one of the 299, and I might have been glad of the
solid results. I trust, however, that I have sufficient under-
standing of the meaning of things to have been enabled to
have reconciled, first to myself and then to my friends, how
it was that, being one of the 299 who voted against the
second reading of that bill, I was not one of the 99 who
opposed its introduction. That would have been the case if
I had only been in the majority on the 2d division; but I
was also in the minority on the first division, and more than
that, I was one of those who stood up in the house and en-
tered a protest against that unpatriotic and most nefarious
measure. (Cheers.) I did not merely vote against it because
I saw that the consequence of that vote would be the defeat
of the Ministry, but I raised my voice against the bill when
the prospect of turning out the Government seemed utterly
hopeless, and when all I could do by giving that vote was
to raise one voice to heaven for our old laws, our old con-
stitution, and the maintenance of the old spirit of freedom
in true and honest England. (Cheers.) In giving that
vote did I give a vote for bloodshed, for rapine, for war ?
Did I move a finger towards breaking the alliance with our
next neighbour, an alliance which all who value the peace
of the world and the prosperity of empires hold most dear.
I deny that I did, and I assert that if any men more than
the rest of the land came forward to strengthen and support
the French alliance, it was those 99 men who in the British
House of Commons said "no " to the first reading of the
Conspiracy to Murder Bill. I make this assertion because
I am deeply convinced that that alliance is not one which
rests on dynasties, or which depends upon the breath of colo-
nels of regiments, looking for favour and promotion.
(Cheers.) It is an alliance which is based upon the solid
convictions of a great and glorious nation. In the path of
peace, in the path of liberty, in the path of mutual confidence,
in the path of commercial intercourse, lie the true way to
love and friendship. If we had passed that Conspiracy to
Murder Bill we might have pleased the present government
of France, but we should not have pleased the great French
nation—that great French nation which has so often changed
its form of government and shifted its rulers. No good neigh-
bours ought to interfere with the internal concerns of ano-
ther country ; it is for them to decide what form of govern-
ment they choose to accept, and so long as the French nation
likes to keep the house of Bonaparte upon the throne it is
our duty to keep good friends with Louis Napoleon, not be-
eause he is on the throne, but because he represents the
French nation. (Hear.) We are at peace with the French
nation, but net because it is ruled by a Bonaparte, and that
is the great distinction we ought to draw. In rejecting the
Conspiracy to Murder Bill we did not interfere with the
great commercial French nation or the great commercial
middle classes of France. Things may have been done, and
no doubt were dune, which wereedispleasing to the ruler of
France; but after those events had eccurrt d, all that we did
was to make a grave protest in the sacred cause of liberty, by
declaring that on the shores of the Atlantic, with England
and the United States and our colonies all speaking the
same language, all governed by free institutions, no state
of things could be endured in which the right of asylum was
not maintained in its :,rue and proper position. (Cheers.)
I am sure it the present dynasty of France does get consoli-
dated on the throne it must sooner or later come to this con-
dition and govern constitutionally, and the first great im-
pulse to that will have been given by that faithful and
energetic action of the British Parliament which in one
moment vindicated the honour of the people, and at one
blow hurled Lord Palmerston and his ministry prostrate to
the ground. (Cheers.) This brings me to a great fact
which has been present to the thoughts and almost to the
eyes of every one who now hears me. What I say with re-
spect to Cherbourg is, let it be a lesson to us to mind our
own Oohs. A nation doubtless has a right to build dock-
yards and forts at its pleasure, and to cast heavier cannon
than it ever before possessed. But what are these forts
erected for? What are the cannons pointed at? Why do
we see those great excavations, those enormous works recall-
ing to our minds, as their ruler proudly remarked, the
marvels of Egypt? Why do we see those farts bristling
with one thousand pieces of ordnance? The answer is plain.
They are placed there to maintain the supremacy of the
country which has erected them. It is for us to say whether
that supremacy shall be offensive or defensive. The dock-
yard of Cherbourg points towards England, the cannon
look across the Channel. We are told that France is our
best and truest ally. Ido not deny it. I will gladly admit
the fact in the face and in spite of Cherbourg;
but if Cherbourg is to be to us no reason for doubting
France, still less should it be a reason to France for
doubting England, if, in consequence of Cherbourg, we
augment our national defences, aid put Portsmouth, Ply-
mouth, Milford Haven and, above all, the island of Alder-
ney, in a proper condition to resist any hostile movement
on the part of a foreign nation. (Cheers.) It would be
well to put those places in a proper position of defence; but
far better would it be than fortifying Portsmouth, Ply-
mouth, or Alderney, if we were to send out into the Chan-
nel, bold, erect, sturdy, unchallengeable, and majestic, those
mighty symbols of our great nation, the wooden walls of
our land. (Loud cheers.) Cherbourg has been made, the
Queen has been received with peace and honour, and God
be praised for it ; but let us, as the results of what we have
seen, send our workmen swarming into the dockyards, let
the axe and the hammer ring, let the rigging be spun, let
the sailcloth be woven, let the number of our men be
doubled, trebled, and even quadrupled from the merchant
service to man the yards of these ships, and let us be in a
condition to show these Frenchmen that we are as well pre-
pared to meet all exigencies as they can be, and that it is
determined ever to maintain its well earned appellation of
glorious old England, the home of the brave and the free.
(Cheers.) This is what I have to tell you about France;
and now I come to another subject which has occupied very
much of our time during the last session of Parliament—l
mean the affairs of India. Mr. Lawrence has most kindly
alluded to a speech which I made on the Ellenborough de-
spatch, and has given me credit for the spirit in which it was
delivered. I recollect very well I said that I never had such
pain and difficulty in making up my mind as I had upon
in
the because I thought both sides were very much
in the wrong, and I am glad to think that the independent
course which I then took, so far from lowering me, has
tended rather to raise me in your estimation. (Cheers.)
But to throw aside the whole question of the Canning pro-
clamation with the rejoinder, and to come to the general
question of India, we have had three India bills, and Heaven
knows how many resolutions. The debate upon those bills
and the resolutions were, I believe, almost as numerous as
are the people here to-night. (Laughter.) We had one thing
one day, another thing another, and Heaven knows what the
day after. Now what is the line I have taken ? It may not
be one in accordance with the popular feeling, but am
satisfied it is a wise one—(hear, hear)—because Parliament
has, after all these debates upon propositions which were
varied almost every day, come as near to it as its honour
and consistency would allow it to do. That line was to stand
up, nn by my vote—for I did not think, seeing so many
mouth
open, that I ought to add much to the gabble of
tongues upon Mr. Cardwell 's motion itself-4o endeavour to
keep things as much as possible in the same condition in
which they were. I saw that great 01(1 company which,
whatever might be its faults, had splendidly and nobly ad-
ministered the affairs of India for many years—that com-
pany which had consolidated civilisation and paved the way
for the introduction of Christianity, and which bad raised a
mighty empire in the East mainly by the exertions of the
middle classes of this country—l saw that great old company
attacked in what I conceived to be a most unfair manner. I
certainly do not think it very fair when a man is falling to
give him a push down hill, but that seemed to me to be the
way in which Parliament attacked the East India Company
when in its difficulties, and when it was fighting its way,
and straining every nerve and muscle to save India to
England. (Cheers.) It was a manoeuvre originally got up
for the sake of tiding over a session, and avoiding a
reform bill. If a minister had been permitted for such
an object to have abolished the East India Company it
might have consolidated the rebellion in India by making
those superstitious and rebellious sepoys imagine that they
had right on their side. When I saw this I was determined
to do all I could to support the East India Company, and
when that was hopeless, to keep things as nearly in their old
state as I could, and in this I triumphed. The night before
the division on the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, there was a
motion by Mr. flaring to postpone legislation on Judie.
Lord Palmerston had a majority of 143, which seemed to
strike the Company to the ground. But, then came the
change of the Cabinet, and afterwards Mr. Disraeli's bill
upon the top of Lord Palmerston's, and that did not seem to
go down very well either. Before the time came for its
second reading, Lord J. Russell's suggestion of proceeding
by resolutions, on which to found a bill, was agreed to, and
then in discussing these resolutions we got into such a tang:e
that it does not seem to me that Solomon himself would
have been able to set us right. At length up
jumps a private
member and proposes, at one fell swoop, to undo half the
change, and to appoint an Indian Council, which shall be
as like the East India Company as two eggs are like each
other. Ministers and the Opposition alike get pp And em-

brace the scheme. The bill is postponed for the time, and
eventually the suggestion is embodied and incorporated in
the bill, and so it is passed. The East India Company has
been struck to the ground, but in its place there is a coun-
cil and a minister, many of the features of the government
by the company are retained, and the majority of the per-
sons appointed to form the new council of India are taken
from the Court of Directors. That is the history of the
great change in the government of India. I hope it will
prove successful, and that through the noble exertions of
Havelock, Nicholson, the Lawrences, and Id-. Frere, in
another year the Indian difficulty will take its place among
the records of the past. There was another vote to whip h, if
you will allow me, I should wish to address a few observa-
tions. The question is one to which Mr. Lawrence alluded,
namely, the part I took in reference to the Galway Di-fi an-
chisernent Bill. You know that when on the hustings I told
the freemen that in me they would find a man to fight their
battle before any Government, for the simple reason that I
do not consider it either just or statesmanlike to sweep away
a whole class of the constituency, because offence against
the electoral laws might be in justice imputed to some few
individuals among them. I said that many years ago all
elections were scenes of turbulence, that It was impossible to
expect perfect purity from all freeholders—possibly 10s. men,
none of whom were immaculate; but that in these days
there was such an increasing spirit of intelligence, such a
sense of high responsibility, that the people believed in the
sacredness of political privileges among all classes of the
constituency, and that they ought rather to be increased than
diminished. Any man, therefore, who voted for the disfran-
chisement of the freemen of Ireland aimed a blow against the
freemen of England ; and therefore it was that I fet, when
that bill was before the house, that the battle of the freemen
of Maidstone was to be fought. We felt that the whole cause
of the freemen, as well of England as of Ireland, was before
the house, and that is the reason we stood up to resist the
bill.- I do believe that ameng the freemen the great majo-
rity will be found to be men of upright and honest character,
fully alive to the political responsibilities with which they
are, invested, and who scrupulously and conscientiously act
up to their political opinions; and I say that the way in
which they have exercised their trust is the best guarantee
that those who fought their battle in the Legislature were
right in so doing. (Cheers.) The hon. gentleman resumed
his seat amid the cheers of the assemblage, which, in con-
sequence of the park gates having been thrown open imme-
diately after the dinner, now numbered several thousand
persons.
Major SCOTT, 31.13 ~ also briefly addressed the meeting,
and the party adjourned to the spacious grounds of the park,
where dancing, old English games, and other sports were
kept up until half-past nipe o'clock, when a display of fire-
works took place, and the chairman and hon. members re-
turned to Maidstone by a torchlight procession.

REPRESENTATION OF GREENWICH.

Mr. Townsend, M.P., has forwarded a communication to
the secretary of the local political association, de,ignated
the Townsend League, in which he states—" I have invari-
ably promised that I would resign my seat as a member for
the borough when I found it impossible to represent the
interests of my constituents—and, moreover, that such re-
signation should be tendered to that large body of the elec-
tors who have struggled manfully to sustain me in my posi-
tion as a member of the House of Commons. lam anxious
to keep faith with my friends, and I think that the time has
arrived when I ought to resign the trust which I accepted
at their hands." A meeting of the association has been con-
vened, at which Mr. Townsend has promised to attend, and
it is contemplated to hold public meetings in each of the
three towns comprising the borough for the purpose of
enabling Mr. Townsend to announce his resignation and ad-
dress his supporters. The only candidates at present in the
field arc Alderman Salomons and Mr. Ernest Jones. The
latter is making some progress amongst the supporters of
Mr. Townsend, and several cemmittees have been formed to
secure his return. Mr. Chambers at present declines to
ea
opmp ema ru ;n butiea teawi
twith
the numerous
H section.
imo nr.ocf the
pebleelcl orreslaurees
tai
nb
go uht tmo
to become a candidate.
A paragraph, stating that Mr. Townsend, M.P., was
about to appear on the metropolitan stage for the benefit
of his creditors, has elicited from that gentleman a letter,
in which he says, " It is not for me to say a single word
en the subject of my own merits as an actor, but will merely
embrace the opportunity of saying that I formerly played
under the name of Mortimer,' but more recently under
that of Winter,' and have always had the good fortune to
play to crowded houses, and on each successive representa-
tion the audience has been warmer and more enthusiastic in
its expressions of approval of my humble endeavours. I can,
with at least some satisfaction to myself, say that I never
in my life played for my own personal advancement, but
always in aid of the funds of some charitable institution, or
for the benefit of some actor, or private individual, poorer
than myself. I have no doubt there will be a very divided
opinion in the minds of the public, as there is in my own,
as to the propriety of this Shaksperian movement ; but I
cannot forget that it is my bounden duty, by all fair and
honourable means, to use every exertion in my power to pay
my creditors, which with the greatest economy and perse-
verance, I could hardly, as an auctioneer, ever expect to be
able to do, considering the peculiar nature of the business;
the ruinously injurious effects of a recent bankruptcy, and
the great depression and competition in the auction world.
The offer, therefore, of the engagement is, under the cir-
cumstances, both tempting and seductive. Nor can I f Rot
—and I may, I trust, be allowed to remind the public—that
a large majority of the officers in her Majesty's army, and
some of th.e first men in the land, occasionally appear on the
stage, and the Queen, the court, and the aristocracy very
properly sanction the performances by their presence.* * *
As I shall most probably fill up a few nights in the pro-
vinces prior to my London engagement, I shall in the course
of next week publicly resign my scat into the bands of the
great body of reformers who, in March, 187, did me the
high and distinguished honour to send me to the Mouse of
Commons as their representative."

MAIL ROUTES TO AUSTRALIA.

Memorials to the Government to try the Pacific route for
mails to Australia are signing all over the kingdom. The
Suez route has been tried and found wanting. Two years
ago, a company of enterprising and Intelligent merchants
undertook to convey the mails between Southampton and
Sydney, via Suez, in 56 days. The Government gave them
their own price—nearly £200,000 ayear—to do it, and they
began under the most favourable auspices. The Government
really thought that they had at length established a mail
communication with Australia which would he satisfactory
to the colonies. Mr. Rowland Hill, the Post-office Se-
cretary, even went down to Southampton to assist in the
inauguration of the new company, and yet the latter
hopelessly and ridiculously failed. For upwards of
seven years the Suez route for the conveyance of the
Australian mails has been tried, off and on, and during
that period almost every other route has been tried,"
and not one cf them has succeeded. It is natural, therefore,
that public attention should be directed to the only mail way
to Australia that has not been tried, viz., the one by Panama.
How stands our mail communications east and west on the
road to Australia ? Easterly, we have a mail communica-
tion to Ceylon from Southampton, a distance of 6,393 miles.
which is run over in 31 days. Westerly, we have a mail
communication from Southampton to Colon, a distance of
4,400 miles, which is run over in 22 days, but this time
could be considerably lessened by going a direct instead of
the present roundabout way. The 31 days occupied in
going to Ceylon could, however, only he lessened by
faster steamers. Now the antipodesC of England is New
Zealand, or thereabouts. If the globe were cut in
halves through England, at right angles to the equator,
Australia would be a long distance within the same hemi-
sphere as Suez. The arc of the great circle between South-
ampton and Sydney on the eastern route, is therefore of
much less length than an arc of a similar circle between
the same places on the western route. But mail packets
would deviate very little from the latter arc in going from
England to Colon, and from Panama to Sydney, while such
packets on the eastern route being compelled to sail almost
due east between Gibraltar and Alexandria, and between
Aden and Ceylon, a distance of nearly 4,000 miles, cannot,
of course, take the shortest cut. Notwithanding, therefore,
that Australia is on the same hemisphere as Suez, the dis-
tance of Southampton from Sydney via Egypt is about the
same as the distance of Southampton from Sydney by way of
the Pacific, that is, nearly 13,000 miles each way. The ques-
tion of the rival routes is consequently almost narrowed to
this—Shall the Australian mails he carried across the eastern
or Pacific ocean ? In each ocean a mail packet would have
to make one long stretch between coaling stations, that is,
between Point de Galle and King George's Sound, and be-
tween Panama and Tahiti; but the eastern ocean is a tur-
bulent one, with violent and contrary winds, which make
steamers go hundreds of miles out of their course to avoid
them, while the Pacific is a tranquil body of water with fa-
vourable winds for crossing. Captain Porter, an American,
performed the daring feat a few years of going round the
world in a paddle-wheel steamer called the Golden Age,
and without making any preparation for coaling, he crossed
the Pacific from Sydney to Panama in 32 days, and he gives
a highly favourable account of the great facility with which
the great ocean can be crossed. One very great advantage
of the western route is that a letter from England would
reach New Zealand in 50 days, whereas by the eastern
route it must take 70 days to reach that colony.
The late Australian Nail Company received about
£lOO,OOO a year for carrrying the mails. A considerable
portion of this was paid by the colonies, and they would
have paid more if the mails had been carried satisfactorily.
Now, let Sir E. Bulwer Lytton divide a sum say £250,000,
between the Peninsular and Oriental and tile ltoyal Mail
Companies for carrying the mails between Ceylon and Syd-
ney and between Panama and Sydney, once a month each
way. Both companies have got plenty of vessels on the
spot to do the work. If Sir Edward were to do this and
succeed in satisying the most pressing want of the Austra-
lian colonies, he would earn for his party and his Govern-
ment the highest character for practical ability. When
once the news reaches Australia that Eugland can com 7
municate instantaneously with America,
our colonists will
be more excited than ever about a rapid mail communica-
a-
tion with England. It may be said that by merely est
blishing branch lines from Australia to Panatna and Ceylon,
there would he no adequate provision
(madeconveying
passengers all through to England. the for
mail packet
companies, for their own interest, will take care of the pas-
sengers. If the passengers are made uomfortable between
Ceylon and England, they will go by wnc
ay of Panama and
if they cannot find proper accommodation by the Royal
Mail steamers from Ceylon, they will get to Englantd by
way of New York in American packets. All the Govern-
ment have to do is to get the mails to and from Australia
and Ceylon, and to and from Australia and Panama as
quickly as possible.

[ADvErtnsEmENT.] -- Holloway's Pill 9. -- Liver
Complaints.—The virtues of these incorpparablo Pills are
fully appreciated in every part of the civilised world. As
they act on the general system through the circulation,
there are few diseases which theycannot cure ; but they are
especially efficacious in all the disorders of the liver. For
these they are an indubitable specific. They possess unri-
valled potency for good, while they cannot do harm. A
child might physic itself with these pills, and without the
slightest danger, except from such excess as would make
the most wholesome aliment In the world an evil. By re-
ducing the superfluous bile, regulating its due secretion,
and giving tone to the stomach, they effect a perfect and
permanent care!