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

OXFORDSHIRE.

PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE.
The re-election of Mr. Henley, rendered neces-
sary by his acceptance of the Presideney of the
Board of Trade, took place in the County-hall,
Oxford, on Saturday morning. Among those on
the platform were Lord Dillon, Mr. Hamersley,
Mr. J. Lechmere, Colonel Pane, Mr. J. J. Henley,
Captain Drake, Col. Dawkins, Alderman Spiers,
Alderman Sadler, and others. There was a very
scanty attendance in the body of the hall, and the
whole proceedings lasted barely three quais of
an hour.
The High-Sheriff (Mr. H. L. Gaskell) presided,
and having duly opened the proceeding,
Mr. HAMERSLEY proposed, anil Mr. LECHMERE
seconded, the nomination of Mr. Henley as a fit
and proper person to serve in Parliament as a
knight of the shire for the county of Oxford.
No other candidate having been proposed, the
right hon gentleman was declared duly elected, and
was girt with a sword in the fashion prescrthed.
ES, 'elebt.iiii4 'shit;
after thankit,g them for the honour which had been
for the sixth time conferred upon him, and accept-
ing the smallness of the attendance as an evi fence
of the unanimity felt respecting his re-election, said
—Had this been an ordinary occasion I might per.
haps have been content simply to thank you for
the honour you have done me ; but I feel that this
is no ordinary occasion, and that I ant called upon
to express to you, and (through the press, which is
here represented) lo such of my constituents as are
absent, what are my opinions on some of the lead-
ing questions of the day. (Hear.) It would only
be a waste of your time to trace at any length the.
causes which have brought me here to-day.. The
late Prime Minister, with a majority at his back
wholly unequalled in modern times, for some cause
or other for which it is not very easy to account, so
played his cards that his majority was net found to
support him when he wanted it. In not a thin
house he was placed in a position which left him no
other choice as a man of honour than to resign into the
hands of his Sovereign the trust which she had
given him. Under these circumstances the head of
the party with whom I have had for many years
the honour and pleasure of acting was sent for by
her Majesty, and, his friends in the House of Com-
mons having joined in the vote which led to the
overthrow of the late Government, it was not for
him to refuse to endeavour to form a Ministry in
its place. I need not conceal the great diffi-
culties which any Government, coming in under
such circumstances, must necessarily have to en-
counter. I will not pretend to describe to you—
because, from the events of the last six months,
every man throughout this kingdom must be aware
of them—the great anxiety existing in every mind
respecting the state of that mighty empire in India
which the skill, the valour, and the enterprise of
our countrymen have won fur us. For the last 100
years it has been one of the most difficult problems
with which English statesmen have had to deal,—
how that vast awl growing empire should be best
governed for the interests alike of the people of
India and of this country. Various .changes have
at different times been made, all tending to one
point, which naturally was that this
great empire
—originally won by a company of British merchants
—should pass quietly and easily, and with as little
disturbance as possible, into the hands of the
Sovereign of England. In point of face, that was
done upwards of 20 years ago, when the virtual
power passed into the Queen's hands ; but, from
circumstances on which it is nnnece:ssary to dwell,
it has been carried on in the name of the East India
Company, they acting as trustees of the Crown.
Now the will of Parliament has beyond doubt
been expressed on that subject. Very little dif-
ference exists either on the part of the house or of
the country that it would be more desirable for the
Government to be carried on directly in the name
of the Queen. Many of us thong] it, indeed, that
while war was raging it might have been as well
to postpone legislation respecting that empire
until another session. Parliament, however,
and I believe the country at large, thought
it better that, as the question had been mooted,
it should be at once examined and settled.
I do not believe much difference of opinion prevails
as to the general principles upon w hich that ques-
tion ought to be settled. Some d tfference there
undoubtedly will be upon matters of detail. I think,
indeed, that even among those who spoke in sup-
port of the measure of the late Government general
objection seemed to be taken to some or other of
the details. It will then be for the Ministry of
wtich I am a member to
.see if, adhering to the
great principle which Parhament has affirmed, they
can submit a measure less objectionable in its details
than the one at present before the House of Com-
mons. That will be no easy task, and will occupy
much of the time of Parliament. I need not tell
you that at this season of the year no small inter-
ruption to public busi ess has taken place owing to
this change in the Government. It has lost four or
five Government nights at a period of the session
when import-int financial liusiness is usually trans-
acted—when the estimates regarding the various
s branch, of the public sere 'ice are decided upon—
and when the national expenditure is fixed for the
ensuiug year. The questio n which led to the resig-
nation of the late Governmont and to the stoppage
of public business grew out of one of the most atro-
cious actions which history has ever had to record.
I need not tell you that I refer to the attempt re-
cently made to assassinate the Sovereighn of a
neighbouring country—an attempt not only atro-
cious in itself, but renderer I doubly so by the reek-
of destroying one man inS
less cruelty of the meansat lopted. With the object
truments of destruction
were thrown down indisci iminately among hun-
dreds,
nay thousands of iu went persons, towards