The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-19 00:00:00

Conservative Festival at Cambridge.

On Thursday evening a Conservative festival was
held at the Guildhall, Cambridge, which although
strictly local, was attended by 600 persons. The
meeting was ostensibly in honour of Messrs. F. S.
Powell and J. E. Gorst, the sitting members, but
was certainly no less so in that of Mr. Forsyth,
Q.C., who contested the borough and was returned
at the head of the poll in 1865.
Mr. Alderman BALLS, who took took the chair,
after giving the usual loyal toasts, proposed "The
Borough Members."

Mr. Powicu., in his reply, after expressing his
gratitude to the constituency of Cambridge for the
confidence they had placed in him, said it would be
no more possible to speak in this month of January,
1867, without reference to a Reform Bill than it
would have been in January, 1866, without allusion
to the cattle plague. No man dare repudiate this
question who had any regard to the safety of the
State, as its consideration was demanded by a largo
body, who year by year were becoming more capable
of exercising the rights and fulfilling the great
duties of citizenship; but he desired to refute an
eft-repeated and dangerous fallacy. In his mind
the safety of the country did not dwell in votes,
but in laws ; not in the suffrage, but in the ad-
ministration. It was too common for those
interested in popular subjects to argue
before popular assemblies that there was less

liberty in England than in any other country be-
cause the suffrage was more restricted with us ; but
he would ask that man who was dissatisfied to go
to France or Prussia and see what came of freedom
in those countries. He saw nothing in what was
now taking place in America that England ought to
imitate, but much that she ought diligently to avoid.
Doubtless there must shortly be a change in the re-
presentative system in England. He did not say
that they ought to confine themselves to the settle-
ment of 1832—that change was not necessary ; but
he did say such change should be Made with cau-
tion. He trusted some Government would be able
to deal with those difficulties ; he had yet to learn
that a Conservative Government was more unfit to
grapple with them than a so-called Liberal one. If
this question were to be got rid of, it could only be
by bold and comprehensive legislation. It could
lilt tie tuSiio aside by a timid statesman, for, if so,
it would again and agditi aflite riod be a stumbling-
block in the path of beneficial iegisiatioii. tic
trusted the Legislature would never yield to a me-
nretti believe
gedezochriam andwhcyen h
exhibitionseeaidthat
theo of
Parliamentforce.Let
t
of England once eteratved, the supreme power in
this English land now enjoyed by the three estates
of the realm would pass under the govern-
ifient Of men who mistook frenzy for reason, lauda-
tionti grid thaw, who followed them as
the greatest triumphs of gateetttavehlvi and the
most brilliant achievement of political ddielligd:
(Cheers.) In the course of next Session he hoped
to see 6dutte ttse dl legislation in regard to certain of
tlfe ptibli6 depaittnentsi and hi the conduct of these
#tattd why a Conserva-
tive Government was not as 3fiiiti ttititied ilis
confidence of the English people as a " Whig" or
" Liberal " one. Reform was urgently required in
our Adminigtratidit EIS regarded the army and navy,
the taw and edueation. We required such a settle-
itiont tit did ediicatitifr citteStiett as would diminish pau-
perism and relieve the rates, by the abrogation of a
system imposed by a Whig Chancellor, happily no
longer in Downing-street. Another question he wished
to see cieai t itithttek Session was the dwellings of the
Forking classes. lie did not wish to impose heavy
'Piirdeilft tO imptdte the stale of any class, but he
did desire ta wee fctitotecl from England the deep
Were hi a minority in Parliament. He did
that
dwiosregrta_ebeeloifeeldiavpicneVen. larirgieeyclse,netrr:tsoolaf pocopeuslaeit.ivoantityheete
know -whether that was so, but he did k.now.tt lin
001-Aol'36*e principles were not in
tab-tint tnloiery
lilncrland, and he did desire earnestly
The Whig Radical party w
with the
heterogeneous one. The Whigs voted
ex-
treme Radicals, not to assist them in views,
• order to circumvent and defeat them. The
ititg Whigs
utterly fron
coun-
try should be fairly tested aanedaamneoeptindlioernupttakaound.
but in
abo-
lish and put an end to Whig ascendancy. So they
were at war. They had no common end, while the
vboutte
that itht
they
ye
Conservatives were a united and homogeneous party.
They were not opposed to progress ; they desired
advance, but they desired to advance safely ; there
tittnaidtyi Radicals
principle, inpol et ,
might be changes in their party, but one thing he
was sure of—there would be, as in the past, the
samo earnest aad unflinching adhetaion to those Con.